‘A nightmare’: 40 dead in New Year’s Eve fire at Swiss Alps bar
At least 40 people were killed and up to 100 injured in a New Year’s Eve fire that broke out at a bar in the Swiss Alps.
The blaze was at the Le Constellation venue in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, and erupted about 1:30 a.m. local time.
“This evening should have been a moment of celebration and coming together, but it turned into a nightmare,” said local government spokesman Mathias Rénard.
Horrific video shows the moment deadly New Year’s Swiss ski resort fire started — as likely cause is revealed https://t.co/saT4ZthJdL pic.twitter.com/DWLlXbMnqU
— New York Post (@nypost) January 1, 2026
BREAKING: Dozens of people are feared to be dead and around 100 injured after a fire at a bar in a Swiss ski resort, police say.
Latest https://t.co/nTVM2TaBDi pic.twitter.com/dyyu6DdJDZ
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 1, 2026
The moment fire in Swiss ski resort breaks out on New Year’s Eve.
The fire has left dozens of people feared dead and more than 100 injured pic.twitter.com/6tsZH5uVcZ
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 1, 2026
One report suggested the fire was ignited by a woman who was sitting on the shoulders of a friend holding a champagne bottle that contained a lit sparkler.
A Fox News report said Valais Canton police official Frederic Gisler confirmed, “Several tens of people” were killed.
“Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV that they were inside when they saw a male bartender carrying a female bartender on his shoulders. The female bartender was holding a lit candle in a bottle that set fire to the wooden ceiling. The flames quickly spread and collapsed the ceiling, they told the broadcaster,” according to Fox.
There were reports people smashed windows to try to escape and panicked parents rushed to the scene to try to reach their children.
Published reports said officials described what U.S. firefighters call a “flashover” or a “backdraft,” which is sudden explosion of flames.
The Daily Mail said a promotional video for the club shows waitresses passing around champagne bottles fitted with sparklers, and carrying buckets full of several bottles also with sparklers inside.
Tim Steffens, a ski instructor who witnessed the tragedy, told 20 Minuten, “Everyone was pushing and shoving their way out of the stairwell. It was awful. They were all burned. Their clothes were burned away. It really wasn’t a pretty sight. The screams… not pretty, not pretty.”
Another witness told the Daily Mail that the staircase leading out of the club “was extremely narrow.” There apparently was only a single staircase out of the basement of the club, where the fire erupted.
Local medical facilities reported being overwhelmed by the number of injured.