Happy New Year: Support People Crans-Montana, Switzerland Ski Resort Fire

Описание: Happy New Year: Support People Crans-Montana, Switzerland Ski Resort Fire
#Switzerland #SwitzerlandSkiResortFire #CransMontanaSwitzerland
CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) — Investigators said Friday that they believe sparkling candles atop Champagne bottles ignited the fatal fire at a Swiss ski resort when they came too close to the ceiling of a bar crowded with New Year's Eve revelers.
Authorities planned to look into whether the material on the ceiling that was designed to muffle sound conformed with regulations.
The candles, which give off a stream of upward-shooting sparks, were the same type that is commonly available for parties, officials said.

Forty people were killed and another 119 injured in the blaze as it ripped through the busy Le Constellation bar at the ski resort of Crans-Montana, authorities said.

Among the crowd was Axel Clavier, a 16-year-old from Paris, who said he felt as if he was suffocating inside the Swiss Alpine bar where moments before he had been ringing in the new year with friends and dozens of other people.

The teenager escaped the inferno, which broke out early Thursday, by forcing a window open with a table. But about 40 other partygoers died, including one of Clavier's friends, falling victim to one of the worst tragedies in Switzerland's history.
Many of the wounded were in their teens to mid-20s, police said.

Clavier told The Associated Press that two or three of his friends remained missing hours after the disaster.
Late Thursday, mourners left candles and flowers at an impromptu memorial near the bar. Hundreds of others prayed for the victims at the nearby Church of