{"id":218108,"date":"2026-01-03T10:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T10:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/218108\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T10:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T10:10:07","slug":"in-their-words-survivors-and-others-talk-about-fatal-swiss-alpine-bar-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/218108\/","title":{"rendered":"In their words: Survivors and others talk about fatal Swiss Alpine bar fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland — In the aftermath of a fire inside a Swiss Alpine bar<\/a> that killed 40 people celebrating the new year, survivors, friends and family members, the region\u2019s top authorities and even Pope Leo have spoken to the public in remarks in French, Italian, German and English, reflecting the tradition of Swiss multilingualism.<\/p>\n

Another 119 people were injured<\/a> in the blaze early Thursday as it ripped through the busy Le Constellation bar<\/a> at the ski resort of Crans-Montana, authorities said. It was one of the deadliest tragedies<\/a> in Switzerland\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Investigators said Friday that they believe sparkling candles atop Champagne bottles ignited the fatal fire<\/a> when they came too close to the ceiling of the crowded bar.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at what people said in the wake of the disaster:<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u201cI\u2019m looking everywhere. The body of my son is somewhere,\u201d Laetitia Brodard told reporters Friday in Crans-Montana as she searched for her son, 16-year-old Arthur. \u201cI want to know, where is my child, and be by his side. Wherever that may be, be it in the intensive care unit or the morgue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u201cWe were bringing people out, people were collapsing. We were doing everything we could to save them, we helped as many as we could. We saw people screaming, running,\u201d Marc-Antoine Chavanon, 14, told The Associated Press in Crans-Montana on Friday, recounting how he rushed to the bar to help the injured. \u201cThere was one of our friends: She was struggling to get out, she was all burned. You can\u2019t imagine the pain I saw.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u201cIt was hard to live through for everyone. Also probably because everyone was asking themselves, \u2018Was my child, my cousin, someone from the region at this party?\u2019\u201d Eric Bonvin, general director of the regional hospital in Sion that took in dozens of injured people<\/a>, told AP on Friday. \u201cThis place was very well known as somewhere to celebrate the new year,\u201d Bonvin said. \u201cAlso, seeing young people arrive \u2014 that\u2019s always traumatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u201cI have seen horror, and I don\u2019t know what else would be worse than this,\u201d Gianni Campolo, a Swiss 19-year-old who was in Crans-Montana on vacation and rushed to the bar to help first responders, told France’s TF1 television.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u201cYou will understand that the priority today is truly placed on identification, in order to allow the families to begin their mourning,\u201d Beatrice Pilloud, the Valais region’s attorney general, told reporters Friday during a news conference in Sion.<\/p>\n

Pope Leo said in a telegram Friday to the bishop of Sion that he ” wishes to express his compassion and concern to the relatives of the victims. He prays that the Lord will welcome the deceased into His abode of peace and light, and will sustain the courage of those who suffer in their hearts or in their bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u201cWe have numerous accounts of heroic actions, one could say of very strong solidarity in the moment,\u201d Cantonal head of government Mathias Reynard told RTS radio Friday. “In the first minutes it was citizens \u2014 and in large part young people \u2014 who saved lives with their courage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u201cSwitzerland is a strong country not because it is sheltered from drama, but because it knows how to face them with courage and a spirit of mutual help,” Swiss President Guy Parmelin, speaking on his first day in the position<\/a> that changes hands annually, told reporters Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland — In the aftermath of a fire inside a Swiss Alpine bar that killed 40 people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[120637,127,5411,122,42,43,40,38,41,39,126],"class_list":["post-218108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-120637","tag-article","tag-fires","tag-general-news","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}