Swiss authorities believe sparkles on Champagne bottles started a fire that killed 40 New Year revelers at a packed bar in the Ski resort of Crans-Montana.
Dozens of people badly burnt in the fire early Thursday in the glitzy Alpine town were taken to nearby countries for urgent treatment, while authorities pointed the finger at lit sparklers attached to champagne bottles igniting foam on the ceiling.
People continued to bring flowers, candles and messages on Saturday to a makeshift memorial near the scene of the tragedy at Le Constellation bar, where people have often simply stood in stunned silence.
"Courage to all the victims' families, we're thinking of Stefan and hoping he's okay; a hero," said one message. Cards read: "We're thinking of you" and "May they rest in peace."
The tragedy remains the topic of every conversation, filled with pain, sadness, and also incomprehension.
The disaster has left Switzerland reeling, with families of the overwhelmingly young partygoers waiting for news of their loved ones. Most of the 119 people wounded in the fire remained in a serious condition.
Of those injured, 113 have been identified, the Wallis canton's regional police commander Frederic Gisler said Friday, adding that officials were working "relentlessly" to finish the job.
Many of those injured were foreign nationals, and given Crans-Montana's international popularity, non-Swiss citizens are also widely expected to figure among the dead.
Search for loved ones
Among those bracing for the worst was Laetitia Brodard, who said that the last text she received from her son, Arthur, was "Mother, Happy New Year, I love you".
"It's been 40 hours. Forty hours since our children have disappeared. So we should know by now," she told journalists Friday near the memorial.
The exact number of people who were at Le Constellation when it went up in flames remains unclear.
The Crans-Montana website said the venue had a capacity of 300 people plus 40 on its terrace.
Le Constellation's two French managers have been taken in for questioning, with one of them, Jacques Moretti, insisting to the Swiss press that all safety norms were followed.
But the chief prosecutor of the Wallis region, Beatrice Pilloud, said that the standards were among the focuses of the investigation.
Pilloud told reporters Friday that the leading hypothesis was that "sparklers or Bengal candles attached to champagne bottles and lifted too close to the ceiling" had ignited the deadly blaze.
One video showed the low wooden ceiling, covered with soundproofing foam, catching alight and the flames spreading quickly, but revelers continuing to dance, unaware of the death trap they were in.
Once they realized, panic set in.
Eyewitnesses described scenes of chaos as people tried to break through the windows to escape, while others, covered in burns, poured out into the street. Nathan, who had been in the bar before the fire, saw burnt people streaming out of the site.
"They were asking for help, crying out for help," he said, declining to give his last name.
Edmond Cocquyt, a Belgian tourist, told AFP he saw bodies "covered with a white sheet" and "young people, totally burnt, who were still alive... screaming in pain".
Identifying victims
Of the injured, police chief Gisler said that 71 were Swiss, 14 were French, 11 were Italian, and four were from Serbia, along with victims from Bosnia, Belgium, Poland, Portugal and Luxembourg.
Swiss authorities warned it could take days to identify everyone who perished, leaving an agonizing wait for family and friends, while desperate appeals to find those missing circulated online.
Several memorial masses for the victims are planned, including one on Saturday evening in Crans-Montana.
"It's very sad, deeply sad," said a French tourist on Saturday in Crans-Montana, skis in hand, who wished to remain anonymous.
But it seemed "a familiar scenario: a bar that, according to initial reports, wasn't necessarily meeting the standards, and young people who didn't necessarily notice the risks," he told AFP.
"This kind of tragedy has already happened elsewhere. If only this one could make young people, and not so young people, aware of the risks, of checking emergency exits."
