Swiss authorities are grappling with the difficult process of identifying victims after a fatal bar fire
The burns sustained by the largely young group of revelers at the Le Constellation bar were so serious that Swiss authorities said identifying all the victims could take several days.
On Friday (January 2, 2026), investigators began the grim task of identifying the charred bodies from a fire that ripped through a crowded bar during a New Year’s Eve party at the upscale Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, killing approximately 40 people.
Most of the revelers at Le Constellation bar were young people, and their bodies were so badly burned that Swiss authorities said it could take several days to identify all of those killed in the blaze, which also injured 115 people, many critically.
Parents of missing young people were anxiously pleading for news of their loved ones, while foreign embassies scrambled to determine if any of their citizens were among those caught in one of the worst tragedies to strike modern Switzerland.
“The first priority is to identify all the bodies,” Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas Féraud said at a press conference on Thursday evening. He added that this process could take several days.
Mathias Reynard, head of the government of the canton of Valais, said that experts are using dental records and DNA samples for this purpose.
“All of this work is necessary because the information is so sensitive and so horrific that we cannot tell the families anything until we are 100 percent certain,” he said.
The cause of the fire was not immediately clear. Swiss authorities said it appeared to be an accident, not an attack.
Statements from some of the survivors and footage circulating on social media suggest the fire may have started in the bar’s basement ceiling when decorative candles came into contact with flammable material.
Residents of Crans-Montana, a popular resort town for skiers and golfers alike, were shocked by the fire. Many knew the victims, and some said they felt fortunate not to have been there themselves.
On Thursday night, hundreds of people stood silently near the scene to pay tribute to the victims.
“You think you’re safe here, but this could happen anywhere. They were people just like us,” said 18-year-old Piermarco Pani, who, like many others in the town, knew the bar well.
Dozens of people laid flowers or lit candles at a makeshift shrine on the street leading to the bar, which was cordoned off by police. Some wept, while others quietly embraced each other.
Behind the cordon, police said, the bodies of some of the victims still lay inside the bar, and they pledged to work around the clock to identify all those killed in the fire.
Seventeen-year-old Kean Sarbak said he had spoken to four people who escaped the bar, some of whom were burned, and they told him the fire spread very quickly.
Seventeen-year-old Elisa Sousa said she was supposed to be there but spent the evening at a family gathering.
“And honestly, I have to thank my mother a hundred times for not letting me go,” she said at a vigil held for the victims. “Because God knows where I would be now.”
