What we know about the deadly New Year’s Eve Swiss Alpine bar fire – National
Swiss investigators are investigating what caused a fire at a bar in an Alpine ski resort that left around 40 people dead and 115 injured during a New Year’s Eve party.
Most of the injuries, many of them serious, occurred when the fire swept through a crowded bar less than two hours after midnight on Thursday in southwestern Switzerland.
The Crans-Montana resort is well known as an international ski and golf destination. One night, the bustling bar of Le Constellation went from a fun place to the scene of one of Switzerland’s worst disasters.
Although officials said Thursday it was too early to determine the cause of the fire, investigators have ruled out the possibility of an attack.
Crans-Montana is less than 5 kilometers from Sierre, Switzerland, where 28 people, including many children, died when a bus from Belgium crashed inside a Swiss tunnel in 2012.
Here’s what we know about the deadly fire:
A great attempt to escape
The fire broke out around 1:30 a.m. on Thursday during a holiday celebration at Le Constellation bar.
Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV that they were inside when they saw a male salesman lifting a woman selling alcohol by the shoulders as he held a burning candle in a bottle. The flames spread, destroying the wooden roof, they told the broadcaster.
People tried to escape the underground nightclub by climbing the stairs and entering through a small door, causing an explosion in the crowd, one of the women said.
A firefighter watches over the closed bar Le Constellation, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during a New Year’s celebration in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026.
AP Photo/ Antonio Calanni
A young man who was at the scene said that people broke windows to escape the fire, and some were seriously injured, BFMTV reported. He said he saw about 20 people scrambling to get out of the smoke and flames.
Gianni Campolo, a 19-year-old Swiss who was in Crans-Montana on vacation, rushed to the bar to help first responders after receiving a call from a friend who had escaped the fire.
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“As we got closer, we saw people with almost mutilated limbs lying on the ground, with their hearts tied. People were also trapped inside, lying on the ground. We saw their clothes melting off their skin,” Campolo told TF1. “I saw panic and I don’t know what else could be worse than this.”
The fire caused a flashover or backdraft
Swiss officials called the blaze “embrasement généralisé,” a French term for firefighting that describes how a fire can cause the release of flammable gases that can quickly ignite and cause what English-speaking firefighters would call a flashover or backdraft.
The injured were badly burned and suffered from smoke inhalation. Others were rushed to specialist hospitals across the country.
Authorities urged people to be vigilant in the coming days to avoid any accidents that could require already overwhelmed medical services.
The nations of Italy and France are among the lost
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani laid flowers at a memorial in Crans-Montana and said 13 Italian citizens were injured and six were missing on Friday afternoon.
One of the missing was Giovanni Tamburi, whose mother Carla Masielli issued a plea to the Italian state television RAI for any news about her son and asked the media to show his picture in the hope of identifying him.
“We called all the hospitals but they don’t give me news, we don’t know if he is among the dead, we don’t know if he is one of the missing,” he said crying. “They don’t tell us anything!”
People bring flowers and letters near the closed Le Constellation bar, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during New Year’s celebrations in Crans-Montana, in the Swiss Alps, Switzerland, on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026.
AP Photo/ Antonio Calanni
Three of the injured Italians were transported on Thursday from Switzerland to a hospital in Milan and the fourth is expected to be transferred on Friday, said Tajani.
The French Foreign Ministry said eight French nationals were missing and nine others were among the injured. French football club FC Metz said one of its trainees, Tahirys Dos Santos, 19, was badly burned and was flown to Germany for treatment.
People place candles and flowers near Le Constellation bar, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during New Year’s celebrations in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026.
AP Photo/ Antonio Calanni
A spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada confirmed that the department is not aware of any Canadian citizens affected by the fire in a statement sent to Global News.
The top spot for the best athletes in the world
Running on high-altitude snow that rises to nearly 3,000 meters (about 9,850 feet) in the heart of the Valais region’s snowy peaks and pine forests, Crans-Montana is one of the top destinations on the World Cup circuit.
The resort will host the best male and female athletes, including Lindsey Vonn, in their final events before the Milan Cortina Olympics in February.
The town’s Crans-sur-Sierre golf club, just down the road from the pub, hosts the European Masters every August on a beautiful course.
–Additional files from Global News
© 2026 The Canadian Press
