At 1:30 a.m. on the 1st (local time), a fire broke out at the bar "Le Constellation" inside the Crans-Montana resort in Valais, southwestern Switzerland, killing 40 people and injuring 115. The scene of a New Year's celebration turned into chaos in an instant. The incident at the ultra-luxury resort with a history of more than 100 years is being analyzed as a textbook man-made disaster caused by a small flame used for flashy effects that led to mass casualties.
On the day of the incident, the Swiss outlet Tages-Anzeiger quoted witnesses as saying it began inside the bar during champagne service. Witnesses said that at the moment of ignition, a waitress was riding on a colleague's shoulders, moving while holding a champagne bottle. The bottle reportedly had a celebratory sparkler, a "fountain candle," used for cake decorations or party effects. A fountain candle shoots sparks upward like a fountain for several seconds when lit. It is also widely sold domestically under the name "sparkling firework."
Experts estimated that a fountain candle stuck in a champagne bottle likely touched the bar's old solid-wood ceiling finish, causing flames to spread instantly. Footage posted on closed-circuit television (CCTV) and social media (SNS) showed a woman in a black dress holding a champagne bottle with sparks shooting out.
Investigators see little likelihood of terrorism or arson. They suspect the direct cause was the combination of indoor pyrotechnics to mark the New Year, such as a fountain candle, and combustible materials. Analysts said using a small celebratory sparkler that effectively acts like a firework in a wood-filled interior invited tragedy. On the day of the incident, Valais Prosecutor General Béatrice Pilloud said at a news conference, "We have questioned several witnesses and are analyzing cellphone videos left at the scene," adding, "The main hypothesis at this stage is that a widespread fire led to an explosion."
The incident is similar to major club fires that shocked the world in the past. The 2003 fire at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island in the United States (100 dead) and the 2013 fire at the Kiss nightclub in Brazil (242 dead) both started when indoor pyrotechnics ignited combustible interior materials.
Switzerland strictly restricts the handling of fireworks by law. In particular, in the canton of Crans-Montana where the accident occurred, authorities announced a local government ordinance on Dec. 29 last year completely banning New Year's outdoor fireworks. The municipality cited "increased fire risk due to lack of precipitation." Swiss media reported that fountain candles, which are stuck into champagne bottles or held by the end and waved by hand, have been treated like common birthday candles and fallen into a regulatory blind spot.
Experts pointed to "flashover" as the decisive factor that turned a fire from celebratory sparks into a major disaster. When a fire breaks out in an enclosed space like a bar, heat accumulates near the ceiling. Once that heat reaches a critical point, it ignites all surrounding combustible materials at once. Citing a fire expert, CNN predicted that the temperature inside during the blaze may have shot up to several thousand degrees in just 10 seconds.
Given the characteristics of an Alpine chalet-style building, the wood materials that filled the interior served as fuel. The ceiling, made of wood dried over decades, showed an explosive combustion reaction the moment it was exposed to flames. Paper decorations installed to mark the New Year and combustible sound-absorbing panels attached to the walls to reduce noise became fuses that carried the flames.
It also emerged that it was difficult to secure enough evacuation routes for the roughly 300 people inside the bar to escape. The entrance connecting the basement level to ground level was narrow, and the stairs were steep. Witnesses told Deutsche Welle that "as people rushed to the exit all at once, a bottleneck formed, and pandemonium broke out between the crowd pushing from behind and sparks falling from the ceiling." Some claimed that in the early moments of the fire, even the emergency exit signs were invisible due to a power outage.
Tripadvisor reviews of "Le Constellation," where the disaster occurred, repeatedly describe it as "packed to the point where you can't move on weekends or during peak season." This suggests that capacity management and safety measures may have been insufficient even under normal circumstances. The location information platform Wheree gave the bar a low score of 6.5 out of 10 in the "safety" category. The bar's operators deleted their official Facebook page and Instagram account immediately after the fire. Its Google Maps listing was also promptly updated to "temporarily closed." Swiss investigators are closely examining when the bar last underwent a fire safety inspection, whether cited issues were addressed, and whether it exceeded capacity.
Crans-Montana is one of Switzerland's top resort destinations and a hub for luxury accommodations. Hollywood stars such as the late Roger Moore owned chalets there, and it draws as many as 3 million visitors annually. During the winter peak season, a one-night stay at a top-tier resort in Crans-Montana costs at least $1,400 (about 2.05 million won). However, the New Year's party is said to have had an admission fee set low relative to local prices. As a result, large numbers of young people from nearby areas flocked to the venue, increasing the scale of casualties.
The tourism industry expects this disaster to prompt a sweeping overhaul of safety regulations for nighttime establishments across Switzerland. Some cantons have already begun reviewing legislation that would completely ban indoor pyrotechnics. Resorts in the Alps, where the share of tourists is high, are reportedly anxious that the incident could lead to cancellations during the winter peak season.
Local safety expert Jean-Luc Morer criticized, "This disaster shows how deadly the complacency about safety hidden behind the reputation of a luxury resort can be." Once the investigation concludes, bereaved families are expected to file a large-scale damages lawsuit against the U.S.-based resort operator Vail Resorts.