Fire at Crans-Montana, Switzerland

[Luv2play]

I always recoil in horror when I read of these tragedies, particularly when so many young people are involved. It seems a cruel fate to have one’s life snuffed out or altered irrevocably by such an event. 
In this case I can empathize particularly since I know the resort and skied there years ago in my younger days. I lived in Switzerland for 4 years and worked there over several decades and skied many of the hills. 
I also partied in many clubs like this and danced the night away carefree. Like all these tragedies, wrong place, wrong time for the innocent victims. 

[Luv2play]

Video taken by those in the bar show the fire starting on the ceiling and one young man attempting to smother it by flailing a towel. Unfortunately it looks like his attempts would only have fanned the flames by giving more oxygen to the conflagration.
Others are shown standing around and not reacting immediately. Some have reported that when they saw the smoke they immediately ran for the exit. They survived to tell the tale.
It shows that in any crowd, some people have the right instincts in an emergency and others are clueless. Tragic but there it is. 

[maninsoma]

13 hours ago, Luv2play said:

Video taken by those in the bar show the fire starting on the ceiling and one young man attempting to smother it by flailing a towel. Unfortunately it looks like his attempts would only have fanned the flames by giving more oxygen to the conflagration.
Others are shown standing around and not reacting immediately. Some have reported that when they saw the smoke they immediately ran for the exit. They survived to tell the tale.
It shows that in any crowd, some people have the right instincts in an emergency and others are clueless. Tragic but there it is. 

Flailing a towel at a fire has to be the worst thing one could do apart from throwing an accelerant like gasoline on it. 

[Nue2thegame]

1 hour ago, maninsoma said:

Flailing a towel at a fire has to be the worst thing one could do apart from throwing an accelerant like gasoline on it. 

Allowing sparklers in an enclosed area with a flammable ceiling is worse. Horrific tragedy that seems like it could have been prevented. 

[maninsoma]

31 minutes ago, Nue2thegame said:

Allowing sparklers in an enclosed area with a flammable ceiling is worse. Horrific tragedy that seems like it could have been prevented. 

I was only addressing the issue of how to respond to a fire, not any behaviors that would start a fire in the first place.

[BSR]

How tragic, at least 47 dead.  Sparklers set fire to the ceiling?  Wow, that’s some unbelievably flammable ceiling material.  

[EZEtoGRU]

I was at Johnson’s in FTL last night. It was absolutely packed to the gills. The waiters were delivering bottles of Dom with sparklers attached to various tables and I immediately thought about this event at Crans-Montana.

  It didn’t appear like there was anything flammable on the ceiling at Johnson’s but there were curtains hanging in multiple spots throughout the club.   Who knows if they were flame resistant curtains though.  Anyway, I was thinking how a situation can spiral out of control very quickly. 
 

[Luv2play]

29 minutes ago, BSR said:

How tragic, at least 47 dead.  Sparklers set fire to the ceiling?  Wow, that’s some unbelievably flammable ceiling material.  

The sparklers cited is really a misnomer, which some reporters have pointed out. They are more commonly referred to as fountain candles, which more accurately conveys the gushing of sparks that they produce. 
Sparklers are those single metallic rods that produce a sparkle and can be waved about producing a trail of sparkly light. We had them as kids for our May 24th Victoria Day celebrations, a uniquely Canadian event.

[BSR]

2 minutes ago, Luv2play said:

The sparklers cited is really a misnomer, which some reporters have pointed out. They are more commonly referred to as fountain candles, which more accurately conveys the gushing of sparks that they produce. 
Sparklers are those single metallic rods that produce a sparkle and can be waved about producing a trail of sparkly light. We had them as kids for our May 24th Victoria Day celebrations, a uniquely Canadian event.

Thanks for the clarification.  So it sounds like this tragedy is quite similar to the Rhode Island Station nightclub fire, where the stage’s pyrotechnic display, basically big fountain candles, set fire to highly flammable acoustic foam.  

[marylander1940]

1 hour ago, BSR said:

How tragic, at least 47 dead.  Sparklers set fire to the ceiling?  Wow, that’s some unbelievably flammable ceiling material.  

We need basic regulations in all public spaces. Unfortunately, we can't regulate stupidity and lack of basic common sense... sparkles inside a bar/restaurant? What can possibly go wrong?

I just watched the pictures of those beautiful in shape and I guess wealthy (ski resort) young people who died. Heartbreaking! 

Edited Saturday at 06:58 PM by marylander1940
misspelling

[Luv2play]

1 hour ago, marylander1940 said:

We need basic regulations in all public spaces. Unfortunately, we can't regulate stupidity and lack of basic common sense... sparkles inside a bar/restaurant? What can possibly go wrong?

I just watched the pictures of those beautiful in shape and I guess wealthy (ski resort) young people who died. Heartbreaking! 

Yes I haven’t seen any photos yet of the victims but imagine most of them were very fit and attractive young people of both sexes. The type you see at ski resorts all over the world really. On the hills you see all types of families and skiers but in a club like Le Constellation, the crowd would be more homogeneous. 

[+ azdr0710]

4 hours ago, Luv2play said:

The sparklers cited is really a misnomer, which some reporters have pointed out. They are more commonly referred to as fountain candles, which more accurately conveys the gushing of sparks that they produce. 
Sparklers are those single metallic rods that produce a sparkle and can be waved about producing a trail of sparkly light. We had them as kids for our May 24th Victoria Day celebrations, a uniquely Canadian event.

thanks for this clarification......, like you, as a kid, we played with "sparklers", the single thin rod that emitted sparkles up to about a foot away......fairly benign stuff

 

however, when googling "sparklers champagne" or similar, I see much larger pyrotechnics that are still evidently called sparklers....I guess this is very common in "VIP bottle service"-type scenes.....I'm sure many are going to wonder how something as mundane as a "sparkler" (the old-fashioned kind) could ignite anything.....

VIP Bottle Sparklers For Sale | King of Sparklers

WWW.KINGOFSPARKLERS.COM

---

Our VIP Bottle Sparklers are used at major nightclubs, lounge, restaurants, weddings and any events across the country. Lasts 45 to 50 seconds. Buy now!

 

[Luv2play]

When you read the above ad against the background of the disaster they caused in Switzerland, then you wonder whether action will be taken to ban their use in indoor venues. I guess this would have to be at a local level unless federalc authorities introduced legislation related to public safety. 
 

[mike carey]

1 hour ago, Luv2play said:

When you read the above ad against the background of the disaster they caused in Switzerland, then you wonder whether action will be taken to ban their use in indoor venues. I guess this would have to be at a local level unless federalc authorities introduced legislation related to public safety. 

This reasonably comprehensive article from Deutsche Welle indicates that fire safety regulations are federal, but that perhaps the canton is responsible for inspection and enforcement.

Swiss fire safety under scrutiny after Crans-Montana blaze

WWW.DW.COM

---

After the deadly fire at the Constellation bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, questions are growing about the...

 

[kingsley88]

My understanding is this was in the basement and the only exit was through a single stairway. Similar to the Rhode Island fire of 2003, there was acoustic foam on the ceiling that caught fire from the pyrotechnic style sparklers.

 

[Luv2play]

My impression is from the relatively few photos and videos that have been released of the site is that once the lucky few who got up the stairwell intact they were then forced to go through that front porch which was glassed in. The fire and smoke were right behind them and they had to scramble to get through the maze of furniture consisting of chairs and tables. One young man talked of having to try to smash the glass with a table  get out. That didn’t work but he managed to get out anyway. 

[Luv2play]

The NYTimes published a graphic showing the layout of the bar and it is clear that the front terrace was glassed in and only had a single door. So even when the people got out of the building proper they were confronted with another bottleneck situation.

You can see from one video clip the people trying to squeeze through that door with people piled up behind them with flames and smoke at their backs. Just a chaotic situation. The heat was so intense their skin was just dropping off their hands and faces. Horrific. Just horrific. 

[Thomas_Belgium]

On 1/3/2026 at 4:46 PM, Nue2thegame said:

Allowing sparklers in an enclosed area with a flammable ceiling is worse. Horrific tragedy that seems like it could have been prevented. 

 

According to several news sites, they weren't sparklers but "Bengal Lights".

[marylander1940]

1 hour ago, Thomas_Belgium said:

 

According to several news sites, they weren't sparklers but "Bengal Lights".

Are Bengal lights and sparklers the same?

Yes, Bengal lights and sparklers are essentially the same thing, with "Bengal light" being an older or more formal term for the handheld fireworks that produce bright sparks, named because the Bengal region was a key exporter of ingredients like potassium nitrate for them. While "Bengal light" often refers to flares (sometimes blue) used for signaling, it's also used interchangeably with the wire-based sparklers popular in celebrations, especially in cultures where they're called "phuljhadi". 

[marylander1940]

On 1/3/2026 at 10:46 AM, Nue2thegame said:

Allowing sparklers in an enclosed area with a flammable ceiling is worse. Horrific tragedy that seems like it could have been prevented. 

yet, it keeps happening!