Crans-Montana Blaze Victims Receive Care in Burns Units Throughout the Continent

Survivors of the catastrophic bar fire in the upmarket Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana are being cared for in specialized trauma centers in various European nations, while investigators say many of the dead were so badly burned that naming the victims could take an extended period.

A Tragedy of Terrifying Scale

About 40 people were killed and 115 hurt when the inferno engulfed a New Year’s Eve celebration in the crowded Constellation bar and basement nightclub.

“The first objective is to assign names to all the bodies,” said Crans-Montana’s mayor Nicolas Féraud.

The Swiss president, Guy Parmelin, called the fire “a calamity of unprecedented, horrifying proportions” as he described the devastating toll. “Behind these figures are faces, names, families, lives tragically ended, forever altered or for ever changed,” Parmelin said at a press briefing.

Challenging Task of Naming Victims

Such was the severity were the victims’ burns that Swiss officials said identification work was particularly gruelling. Families of missing youths issued urgent appeals for news of their loved ones and foreign embassies worked urgently to find out if their nationals were among those involved in one of the worst disasters to strike the country in recent memory.

A regional leader, the head of government of the canton of Valais, said experts were using dental records and DNA samples for the task. “All this work needs to be done because the information is so distressing and sensitive that no detail can be told to the families unless we are 100% sure,” he explained.

Hospitals Reach Capacity

Despite having one of the world’s most advanced medical systems, Switzerland’s regional clinics quickly reached capacity in the hours after the blaze. Over 30 people were taken to hospitals with specialised burns units in Zurich and Lausanne and six were transferred to Geneva, as reported by news agencies.

A significant number of the injured were transported to other countries including Belgium, France and Germany, while the EU said it had been in contact with Swiss authorities about offering support.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, stated online he had offered his country’s assistance as clinics in Paris and Lyon took in patients, while Sweden and North Macedonia also said they had medical capacity available.

International Victims

Italy and France are among the countries that have said some of their nationals are unaccounted for and Italy’s diplomatic representative to Switzerland said the Italian foreign minister would visit Crans-Montana.

Swiss officials have said approximately 40 people were killed but a foreign government has put the death toll at 47, based on early data.

A regional health and safety official said on Friday he was “taken aback” by the latter figure. “This is not the same number that we have,” he told a media outlet.

The Italian ambassador said the majority of the injured had now been identified. A number of Italians are still missing and more than a dozen receiving treatment. Three Italians were repatriated on Thursday with more to follow.

The French foreign ministry said several nationals were among the injured and eight others remained missing. Australia has said a citizen was hurt.

Desperate Search for Loved Ones

Relatives and friends have been scrambling to find their loved ones, using social media to share images of those still missing.

Paulo Martins, a French citizen living in the area for 24 years, said his son and his girlfriend narrowly missed being in the bar at the time of the fire. “When he came home he was deeply traumatized,” Martins said.

A friend of his 17-year-old son had been transferred for treatment in Germany with severe burns covering a third of his body, Martins added.

Eleonore, 17, started the year with a desperate hunt for friends who have been unheard from since the fire. Outside the bar, now shielded by white tarpaulins and a wall of temporary fencing, she said she had not heard from them since New Year’s Eve.

“We took loads of photos [and] we put them on Instagram, Facebook, every social network possible to try to find them,” she explained. “But there’s nothing. No response. We called the parents. Nothing. Even the parents don’t know.”

She and a friend later received news that one friend was in a medically induced unconsciousness in a hospital in Lausanne.

Long Road to Recovery

The director of the city’s teaching hospital, Claire Charmet, said it was treating 22 severely injured patients, most ranging in age from 16 to 26.

“Patients are being stabilised and moved to the surgery or to specialised beds,” she told a local newspaper. “We need to be aware that the medical care will be long and intense, lasting many weeks or even months.”