San Francisco Frontiers - Sparklers blamed for deadly Swiss bar fire

Investigators working to get to the cause of the tragedy, which happened in the early hours of Thursday in the Swiss Alps resort town of Crans-Montana, have homed in on the sparklers after viewing mobile phone footage and speaking to survivors.

The images, some posted online, were recorded by partygoers in Le Constellation bar and show sparklers stuck in the top of champagne bottles held close to the basement bar's low ceiling, which was covered with soundproofing foam material.

Videos showed the material catching fire but the patrons -- many of them in their late teens and 20s -- kept dancing, unaware of the death trap they were in.

"Everything suggests that the fire started from sparklers or Bengal candles" waved high near the ceiling, the chief prosecutor of the Wallis region, Beatrice Pilloud, told a press conference.

When the party-goers realised the danger they were in, chaos broke out, with videos showing them scrambling and screaming.

Witnesses described a scene of terror, as people tried to break windows to escape while others, badly burned, poured into the street.

Most of the 119 survivors were in a critical condition, overloading Swiss hospitals so much that dozens were being taken to neighbouring European countries for specialised burns treatment.

- Safety rules in focus -

Jacques Moretti, the French owner who had run the bar since 2015 with his wife Jessica, insisted to Swiss daily the Tribune de Geneve that safety norms had been followed.

"Everything was done according to the regulations," he said.

But Pilloud said the application of those standards was among the focuses of the investigation.

The Morettis -- who escaped the fire unharmed -- have been questioned as "witnesses", with no liability established at this stage, she said.

The exact number of people who were at the bar when it went up in flames remains unclear. The Crans-Montana website said the venue had a capacity of 300 people plus 40 on its terrace.

Authorities warned it could take days to identify everyone who perished, leaving an agonising wait for family and friends.

Given Crans-Montana's international popularity as a ski destination, foreigners were expected to be among the dead.

Among those bracing for the worst was Laetitia Brodard, who said that the last text she received from her 16-year-old son, Arthur, was "Mom, Happy New Year, I love you".

"It's been 40 hours. Forty hours since our children have disappeared. So we should know by now," she told journalists Friday near a makeshift memorial set up near the burnt-out shell of Le Constellation.

Swiss authorities have also been working to identify the badly burned survivors.

Wallis canton regional police commander Frederic Gisler told reporters that 113 of the 119 who managed to get out had been identified and officials were working "relentlessly" to complete the task.

Of the injured, 71 were Swiss, 14 were French, 11 were Italian, and there were four Serbs, as well as individual Bosnian, Belgian, Polish, Portuguese and Luxembourg nationals.

In 14 cases the nationality was still unknown, Gisler said.

Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Romania were among the countries helping to take in burnt survivors, with EU crisis management commissioner Hadja Lahbib saying 24 were already being transferred.

Wallis canton chief Mathias Reynard said a total of around 50 would end up being transferred for treatment outside Switzerland.

- Inhalation burns -

The managing director for the hospitals in the Wallis canton, Eric Bonvin, told AFP the patients brought in suffered not only burns but also fractures and symptoms of suffocation, likely caused in the panicked rush for the exit.

The burns, in several cases, were not only external, but also respiratory -- inhalation burns that are "extremely complex and difficult" to treat, he said.

"They have to remain intubated until they recover and until their airway is stable and open enough again for them to breathe."

Most of those cases were sent to other hospitals with specialised units, he said.

As authorities on Friday began moving bodies from the burned-out bar, locals described Crans-Montana as stunned.

"The atmosphere is heavy," Dejan Bajic, a 56-year-old tourist from Geneva who has been coming to the resort since 1974, told AFP.

"It's like a small village; everyone knows someone who knows someone who's been affected," he said.

Edmond Cocquyt, a Belgian tourist, said he saw bodies "covered with a white sheet" and "young people, totally burned, who were still alive... screaming in pain".

"We thought it was just a small fire -- but when we got there, it was war," Mathys, from the neighbouring village of Chermignon-d'en-Bas, said, declining to give his last name.

"That's the only word I can use to describe it: the apocalypse."

C.Lewis--SFF