Switzerland fireplace newest: Bar managers below felony investigation as police present first particulars on victims | EUROtoday

Two managers of the Swiss bar the place a a fireplace at a New Year’s social gathering left 40 folks lifeless are below investigation, police have mentioned.

Authorities confirmed they’ve opened the investigation on Saturday, days after the lethal blaze at Le Constellation within the widespread ski resort of Crans-Montana.

The two are suspected of negligent murder, negligent bodily hurt and inflicting fireplace by negligence, police mentioned in a press release.

Many of these killed, injured or lacking are believed to be international nationals.

The injured included 71 Swiss nationals, 14 French and 11 Italians, together with residents of Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Luxembourg, Belgium, Portugal and Poland, based on Frederic Gisler, police commander of the Valais area.

The nationalities of 14 persons are nonetheless unclear.

Doctors treating the victims of the deadly fireplace at a Swiss Alpine bar say the expertise has left them traumatised.

“This place was very well known as somewhere to celebrate the new year,” Eric Bonvin, common director of the regional hospital in Sion that took in dozens of injured folks, advised AP on Friday.

“Also, seeing young people arrive – that’s always traumatic.”

“It was hard to live through for everyone. Also probably because everyone was asking themselves, ‘Was my child, my cousin, someone from the region at this party?’”

Clavier, a Parisian teenager, said he did not see the fire start, but he saw servers arrive with Champagne bottles topped with the burning sparklers in Le Constellation bar at the ski resort of Crans-Montana.

Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV they were inside when they saw a male bartender lifting a female bartender on his shoulders as she held a lit candle in a bottle.

The flames spread, collapsing the wooden ceiling of the bar, they told the broadcaster.

One of the women described a crowd surge as people frantically tried to escape from the basement nightclub up a flight of stairs and through a narrow door.

Another witness speaking to BFMTV described people smashing windows to escape the blaze, some gravely injured, and panicked parents rushing to the scene in cars to see whether their children were trapped inside.

Investigators said on Friday that they believe sparklers in Champagne bottles ignited the fatal fire when they came too close to the ceiling of the crowded bar.

Authorities planned to look into whether sound-dampening material on the ceiling conformed with regulations and whether the candles were permitted for use in the bar.

Officials said they would also look at other safety measures on the premises, including fire extinguishers and escape routes. The region’s top prosecutor has warned of possible prosecutions if any criminal liability is found.

The Valais region’s top security official, Stephane Ganzer, told SRF public radio Saturday that “such an enormous accident with a fireplace in Switzerland signifies that one thing did not work – possibly the fabric, possibly the organisation on the spot.”

He added: “Something did not work and somebody made a mistake, I’m certain of that.”

Nicolas Feraud, who heads the Crans-Montana municipality, told RTS radio he was “satisfied” checks on the bar had not been lax, the broadcaster reported.

The severity of the burns made it difficult to identify bodies, requiring families to supply authorities with DNA samples.

In some cases, wallets and any identification documents inside turned to ash in the flames.

Emanuele Galeppini, a promising teenage Italian golfer who competed internationally, was officially listed as missing.

His uncle Sebastiano Galeppini told Italian news agency ANSA that their family is awaiting the results of DNA tests, though the Italian Golf Federation on its website announced that he had died.