The group of 15 young people had travelled from Milan to Crans-Montana, some of them crossing the border by car, others by train, to celebrate New Year’s Eve. The Swiss ski resort was well known to them, having spent summers here with their families, and a big draw was marking the new year in the bar that in recent years had become known as the place to be.
Eight from the group managed to escape the inferno that ripped through Le Constellation, killing about 40 people, while three are among the 80 who were critically injured. Two of the eldest, Marco, 20, and Gabriele, 18, had planned to join their friends in the venue – appreciated by young people for being an affordable place to party in a resort popular with celebrities and wealthy skiers – shortly after midnight but by a last-minute twist of fate decided not to.
Now they are searching for the four among them who were still missing as of Friday evening, including Achille Barosi and Chiara Costanzo, both 16. “Sometimes that is how destiny plays out,” said Gabriele, standing beside a floral and candle tribute at the scene. “It is devastating.”
Another Italian who was not with them, Emanuele Galeppini, a 17-year-old international golfer who lived in Dubai, was the first of the victims to be identified publicly. His uncle, Sebastiano Galeppini, told the Italian news agency Ansa that the family was awaiting DNA checks, but the Italian Golf Federation announced on its website that he had died.
A British-educated teenager, Charlotte Niddam, believed to be 15, was also reported missing. A spokesperson for Immanuel College in Bushey, Hertfordshire, said: “We are reaching out with an urgent request for our school community to come together in support of Charlotte Niddam. Charlotte was a student at Immanuel College and her family have now moved back to France. The families have asked that we all keep them in our thoughts and prayers during this extremely difficult time. We are all praying for a miracle for Charlotte and the others.”
Swiss prosecutors said the fire appeared to have been started by sparklers placed in the tops of champagne bottles that were moved too close to the venue’s ceiling.
“From that a blaze began very quickly,” Beatrice Pilloud, the attorney general for Valais canton, said during a press conference. “There are videos that have been analysed, there are several people who have been interviewed and reports have been made.”
Pilloud said the investigation was looking at acoustic foam pictured on the ceiling to see whether it complied with regulations and whether it spread the fire.
The Valais police chief, Frédéric Gisler, said that of the 119 people injured, 113 had been formally identified. Among the injured are 71 Swiss, 14 French citizens, 11 Italians, four Serbs, as well as one individual each from Bosnia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland and Portugal. The nationalities of 14 of the injured have not yet been confirmed.
Officials said identifying the dead and the remaining injured could take days owing to their burns.
One thing most of the victims appear to have in common is how desperately young they were. An account on Instagram has filled up with photos of the youthful faces of those who remain unaccounted for, with their friends and relatives desperately seeking information about their whereabouts.
A 16-year-old Swiss national, Arthur Brodard, was reported missing by his mother, Laetitia Brodard-Sitre, who appealed for information on social media and to the Swiss newspaper Le Temps. She said she and his father had looked in hospitals in Lausanne and Berne but could not find him.
The grandfather of a 22-year-old French woman, Emilie Pralong, told BFMTV she was thought to have been at Le Constellation with several friends and described an “agonising” wait for information.
Hospital workers in Berne have advised those who know the missing to inform the authorities of any tattoos or types of jewellery they may have been wearing.
Ludovico, whose parents have a holiday home in Crans-Montana, was among a group of five friends who had driven to the resort from Rome. They had spent Tuesday night in the bar and planned to go again after seeing in the new year elsewhere. “We were on our way when we saw people running away screaming, and flames behind them,” he said. “We are so, so lucky.”
Ludovico often goes to nightclubs in Rome and said it was common to see candles put on the top of champagne bottles, to celebrate birthdays or other occasions. “The difference in those places is that the ceilings are much higher,” he said.
A collective grief could be felt in Crans-Montana on Friday where residents, many of whom knew victims, have been stunned by the disaster.
“I’m still trying to digest it,” said Jacques, who was born in Crans, as he drank coffee with his friend in a bar. “It’s the grief, as if we have all lost a loved one.”
Many had fond memories of Le Constellation. Dalia Gubbay, a school council member in Milan for schools of the Jewish community, said: “I’ve had a holiday home here for more than 30 years and used to go there to play with the pinball machine.”
Gubbay, a mother of six, said her son, 27, and his wife celebrated the new year in an apartment behind the bar and as they walked home they saw people leaving the venue crying, some with burns. “But at that point they didn’t understand the gravity of it. We initially thought it was another attack against the Jewish community but this was completely ruled out.”
Two of her other children, aged 15 and 17, had planned to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Crans-Montana before deciding to go to Florence. “When they got back last night, I cried and hugged them hard,” she said. “If they’d stayed, they might have gone to the party in Le Constellation. What has happened is unthinkable.”
