About 40 killed, 115 injured in Swiss ski resort blaze: What we know

A blaze killed about 40 people and injured more than 100 others in a bar at a ski resort as partygoers celebrated the arrival of the new year in the early hours of Thursday morning, Swiss police say.

What happened?
A fire broke out at 1:30am (00:30 GMT) at Le Constellation, a bar in the centre of the luxury Alpine ski resort town of Crans-Montana in southwestern Switzerland, police said in a statement on Thursday.
The bar is a popular tourist venue in the town. At the time of the incident, more than 100 people were present, Swiss media outlet Blick reported, quoting police.

Crans-Montana is about 200km south of the Swiss capital, Bern.

“There has been an explosion of unknown origin,” Gaetan Lathion, a police spokesperson in Wallis canton in southwestern Switzerland, told the AFP news agency.
It is unclear how the fire was ignited and spread. However, later on Thursday, The Associated Press news agency reported that Swiss officials were calling the blaze an “embrasement generalise”. It explained that this is a French firefighting term which describes how a fire can release combustible gases which can then “ignite violently and cause what English-speaking firefighters would call a flashover or a backdraft”.

What do we know about the victims?
Frederic Gisler, the police commander in the Valais canton in southwestern Switzerland, said on Thursday that about 40 people had been killed and 115 injured. He added that it would take several days to return bodies to their families.

A medical source told broadcaster RTS that hospitals in French-speaking Switzerland had been overwhelmed with burn victims. Most of those injured were in serious condition, regional councillor Mathias Renard said. Police said that some victims were from other countries.
Valais hospital’s intensive care ‌unit is full, and patients were being transferred elsewhere, he added. University Hospital Zurich said it is currently treating 12 patients for burns.

A spokesperson at Lausanne University Hospital said its burns and intensive care units are treating 22 patients, the youngest of whom is 16 years old.

In neighbouring Italy, the major burns unit at Milan’s Niguarda hospital has been made available to treat the injured.

Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland told Italian reporters that it may take “weeks” to identify many of the victims, as their burns are so severe.

How have authorities responded?
After being alerted to the blaze, 10 helicopters, 40 ambulances and 150 responders were sent to the scene. Police said most of the injured have “significant” injuries with severe burns. Many have been taken to the Valais hospital.

The area around the bar was completely closed off to the public, and a no-fly zone over Crans-Montana was imposed.

So far, there is no information about what may have caused the fire. Specialist forensic investigators from Zurich arrived at the scene later on Thursday.

“We’re just at the beginning of our investigation, but this is an internationally renowned ski resort with lots of tourists,” Lathion, the police spokesperson, said.

However, authorities have indicated that they currently have no evidence that the fire was the result of an act of arson or sabotage.

Beatrice Pilloud, the prosecutor-general of the Valais canton in southwestern Switzerland, told the news conference, “currently we are favouring a fire and at no time is there question of any attack”.

Lathion added that a reception centre and helpline – +41 848 112 117 – have been set up to provide support to affected families. “The intervention is still ongoing,” he added.

“What was meant to be a moment of joy turned, on the first day of the year in Crans-Montana, into mourning that touches the entire country and far beyond,” Guy Parmelin, the president of the Swiss confederation, wrote in an X post on Thursday.
How common is an incident like this in Switzerland?
The fire at Le Constellation is likely the deadliest such incident in modern Swiss history.

Devastating fires and explosions are relatively uncommon in Switzerland.

In June 2024, two people were found dead following a blast in an underground parking garage at an apartment building in northern Switzerland, which also injured 11 people. Police told local media that the explosion had been caused by homemade fireworks.