An avoidable tragedy: How safety lapses turned a Swiss New Year’s party deadly

A woman leaves flowers outside the 'Le Constellation' bar, after a fire and explosion during a New Year's Eve party where several people died. (Photo: Reuters)

• Fire at Crans-Montana bar killed at least 40, sparked by indoor sparklers
• Flammable foam ceiling and blocked exits worsened the tragedy
• Swiss authorities investigating bar managers for negligence

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What began as a New Year’s celebration at a popular Alpine resort ended in catastrophe. A fire tore through the basement of a bar in Crans-Montana shortly after midnight on January 1, killing at least 40 people and injuring many more. As investigators work to determine responsibility, fire safety experts say the disaster bears the hallmarks of tragedies that should have been prevented long ago.

Witness accounts, visual evidence and expert analysis point to a chain of hazards — none of them unfamiliar — that turned the venue into what one specialist called an “avoidable death trap”, the New York Times reported.

Sparklers inside a crowded room

According to prosecutors, the fire most likely began when sparklers carried by waiters ignited the ceiling. Sparklers are legal to buy in Switzerland, but experts have repeatedly warned that using them indoors, especially in crowded venues, is dangerous.

Videos from inside the bar show sparklers held aloft, sending showers of sparks toward the ceiling. One survivor said flames spread almost instantly.

“It was as though the ceiling was soaked with fuel,” said Noa Bersier, a 20-year-old patron who suffered severe burns and is recovering in hospital.

Fire specialists say this scenario is well known. Similar indoor pyrotechnics have caused mass-casualty fires in nightclubs around the world, including deadly blazes in Rhode Island in 2003 and Brazil in 2013.

A ceiling that helped the fire race

Experts believe the flames spread so quickly because of the ceiling material. Footage and witness accounts indicate the ceiling was covered with foam insulation, likely open-cell polyurethane, commonly used for soundproofing.

The problem: the material is highly flammable.

“In Switzerland, this material cannot be left exposed in a public space,” said Olivier Burnier, who runs a Swiss fire safety engineering firm. Fire codes require combustible materials to be covered or treated so they do not significantly increase risk.

Several people familiar with the bar said the foam appeared loose in places even before the fire, hanging down from the ceiling. Experts say burning foam can melt and drip, spreading flames and igniting everything below.

“I can’t think of a worse material to place on a ceiling in a crowded venue,” said Richard Meier, a fire and explosion investigator based in Florida.

A narrow escape — and nowhere to go

As the fire spread, panic followed. Survivors described a rush toward a narrow staircase leading out of the basement, which quickly became clogged. Some people smashed windows or forced doors to escape.

Swiss authorities have said the building had an emergency exit, but it remains unclear whether it was accessible from the basement or clearly marked. Several survivors said they were unaware of any alternative route.

Swiss fire regulations require multiple evacuation paths for spaces holding more than 100 people unless exits lead directly outdoors. Experts say even legally compliant exits are useless if patrons do not know where they are.

“When people are frightened, they go the way they came in,” one fire safety consultant noted.

Questions over inspections and oversight

The disaster has raised troubling questions about inspections. The municipality responsible for building oversight said it had not flagged any fire safety issues at the bar, but officials could not confirm how often inspections were carried out.

Local law requires annual fire safety inspections for public venues. One of the bar’s owners said it had been inspected three times in a decade and met standards.

“That should not be possible under Swiss regulations,” Burnier said. “If it happened, there is a failure in how the law was applied.”

Police have opened a criminal investigation into the bar’s two managers on suspicion of negligent homicide, negligent bodily harm and causing a fire through negligence. The owners have said they are cooperating and deny wrongdoing.

Familiar lessons, repeated

Fire experts say the tragedy fits a grim pattern seen worldwide: indoor fireworks, flammable soundproofing, overcrowding and inadequate exits.

“These are lessons we should have learned decades ago,” Meier said. “But we keep repeating them.”

For residents of Crans-Montana and families of the victims, the focus now is grief and accountability. Switzerland’s president has called the fire one of the worst disasters in the country’s modern history.

As investigations continue, experts hope the loss will force a renewed reckoning — not just about one bar, but about how easily known safety rules are ignored until it is too late.