‘Everyone Is in Shock’: Swiss Town Grieves as More Fire Victims Are Identified

In Crans-Montana, the ski resort where at least 40 people died in a New Year’s Day blaze, residents were struggling to come to terms with one of the worst such disasters in Switzerland’s history.Firefighters who responded to the blaze at Le Constellation bar were applauded by onlookers on Sunday as they marched to the site of the fire during a commemorative event.‘Everyone Is in Shock’: Swiss Town Grieves as More Fire Victims Are IdentifiedIn Crans-Montana, the ski resort where at least 40 people died in a New Year’s Day blaze, residents were struggling to come to terms with one of the worst such disasters in Switzerland’s history.Firefighters who responded to the blaze at Le Constellation bar were applauded by onlookers on Sunday as they marched to the site of the fire during a commemorative event.Credit...SKIP Jan. 4, 2026Skin is gone from Danielo Janjic’s cheeks, his forehead, his nose, his ears. His hands are buried in layers of bandages, his face covered in ointments. Doctors have assured him that, with time and surgery, the burns will heal.The searing trauma, however, will remain.“I’m going to be scarred for life,” Mr. Janjic, 20, said recently from his hospital bed in Sion, a valley town about 15 miles from Crans-Montana, the Swiss ski resort that was devastated by a deadly New Year’s Day fire last week.“I see the images,” he added. “I hear the screams.”Mr. Janjic, a Bosnian who was born in Switzerland and grew up nearby, is one of the 119 people who were injured in the fire, many of them seriously. At least 40 died, the authorities have said, including many young adults and teenagers. On Sunday, the police said that investigators had identified 24 victims, the youngest of whom was a 14-year-old Swiss girl.“I feel weak,” Mr. Janjic said, tubes and catheters protruding from his arms as he shifted in his bed. “Sometimes I’m on the verge of tears, then I’m angry, then I’m sad — I don’t know.”ImageMourners on Saturday at the site of the fire. Many of the victims of the blaze were teenagers.ImageA Mass in Crans-Montana on Sunday to honor those who were killed in the disaster.Credit...Maxime Schmid/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesCrans-Montana, a popular, tight-knit Alpine resort in southern Switzerland is still reeling.On Sunday, church bells rang across the town and its pine-covered slopes as crowds gathered for a commemorative Mass where representatives from different faiths spoke in French, German and Italian. Families waited anxiously for the badly burned bodies of their loved ones to be officially identified. Some parents announced in heart-wrenching messages on social media that they had lost a child.“It’s a tragedy, all these young people who died,” said Thérèse Auger, 68, a care provider for older people, who attended the packed service at the church, Chapelle St.-Christophe. Outside, hundreds had gathered in the cold to watch a livestream of the service on a giant screen.ImageAfter the Mass, crowds marched quietly under a clear blue sky to the site of the fire. ImageFirefighters and police officers placed flowers at a memorial.“We hope we’re not going to find out that there’s someone we know among the victims, because they’re still identifying bodies,” Ms. Auger said. “Everyone is in shock. It’s small here, everyone knows each other.”The two managers of the bar have been placed under criminal investigation over suspicions of negligence as officials try to determine whether potential flaws in the site’s design and management contributed to the disaster. The authorities say they believe that the fire was probably caused by small fireworks placed on bottles that sent up fountains of sparks, igniting foam insulation that covered parts of the ceiling of the bar’s basement.On Sunday, the identities of the victims were slowly trickling out and some family members revealed that their loved ones had died.The death of Caroline Rey, 24, was announced on Saturday by her father, Joël, who remembered the harrowing days after the fire when he would call her number to find “silence fills the air on the other end of the line.”“This helplessness, this feeling of being unable to do anything but wait for that phone call that will change our lives forever,” Mr. Rey, a city councilor in the nearby town of Sierre, wrote on social media. “And today, that unnatural call, which no parent in the world should ever receive, came.”ImageCrans-Montana is a tight-knit ski resort in southern Switzerland, known for appealing to a high-end clientele. ImagePolice tents reflected in the window of a book shop outside Le Constellation bar.Another parent, Laetitia Brodard-Sitre — whose appeals for news of Arthur, her son, echoed the desperation of many families — confirmed on Sunday that he had died.“Our Arthur has gone to celebrate in heaven,” she said tearfully in a video posted on social media. “We can begin our mourning knowing that he is at peace and in the light.”After the Mass on Sunday, crowds marched quietly under a clear blue sky to Le Constellation bar, the site of the fire, where the charred entrance was still cordoned off. Hundreds clapped for the firefighters who had responded to the blaze. Those emergency workers had confronted “unspeakable scenes,” the Rev. Gilles Cavin said in remarks outside the bar.“We are going through a period of crushing darkness,” he told those assembled at the site. “But we are going through it together,” he added.Gathered in front of a makeshift shrine of candles and flowers, the crowd sang, “Hallelujah.”ImageA makeshift shrine of candles, flowers and stuffed animals outside Le Constellation bar.Ségolène Le Stradic is a reporter and researcher covering France.Aurelien Breeden is a reporter for The Times in Paris, covering news from France.SKIP