First four victims of Swiss bar fire identified

The first four victims of a Swiss bar fire have been identified as two women, aged 16 and 21, and two men, aged 16 and 18.

The victims are the first to be identified by police following the New Year's Eve blaze inside the Le Constellation bar, located in the Alpine town of Crans-Montana, in the Valais canton region, which killed at least 40 people and injured 119 others. 

They were all identified as Swiss nationals, although further details including their names have not yet been released. Valais canton police said their bodies have been returned to their families as efforts continue to identify the other victims. 

Emmanuele Galeppini, 17, was the first victim to be identified after his death was confirmed in an Instagram post by the Italian Golf Federation on Friday. 

The deadly blaze broke out at around 1.30am local time (12.30am GMT) on Thursday morning, and quickly swept through the downstairs area of the crowded bar. 

Swiss officials described the blaze as a likely flashover, meaning that it triggered the release of combustible gases that can ignite violently.

Much suspicion has already focussed on the dimpled foam acoustic insulation which covered the ceiling of the basement bar and appeared to ignite from a sparkler held aloft on a Champagne bottle, then spread with terrifying ferocity. 

Witnesses described the ensuing panic as revellerts tried to escape from the nightclub area in the basement, up a flight of stairs and through a narrow door, causing a crowd surge. 

Jacques Moretti, 49, and his wife Jessica, 40, the French couple who own the bar, could face manslaughter charges over the tragedy if their safety standards or fire precautions were found to be lacking, Swiss authorities have said. 

The Morettis, speaking publicly for the first time on Friday, insisted that all laws and regulations had been followed and claimed that the bar had been checked by safety inspectors three times in the last 10 years.

'Everything was done according to the regulations,' Jacques Moretti, 49, told the La Tribune de Genève newspaper. 'We can neither sleep nor eat. We are not well'.

He denied reports that the stairs leading from the basement where the fire started to the main exit were too narrow or that non fire-retardant materials were used in furnishings or soundproofing foam on the ceiling.

'We will do everything in our power to help clarify the causes. We are doing everything in our power. Our lawyers are also involved.'

Béatrice Pilloud, the attorney-general for Valais which includes Crans-Montana, suggested the Morettis could face manslaughter charges if the investigation concluded they had been negligent. 

Mrs Moretti was in the bar when the blaze began and was burnt on the arm. Her husband was in one of the two other restaurants that they own in the area. 

The couple acquired the Le Constellation, which was then abandoned, in 2015 before turing it into a lively nightspot.

Photos discovered on a Facebook account set up by the Morettis chronicling their DIY renovation of the bar that year, show the ceiling was completely stripped back at the time, with the foam then applied as the final layer.

The couple can be seen taking an active part in the refurbishment with Jacques alongside workmen and Jessica even stopping the traffic in the narrow streets of Crans as deliveries of furniture and other materials are made from huge lorries.

Many of those killed and injured in the blaze were under-age teenagers who had packed into the basement. The bar allowed in revellers who were 16 and over, rather than insisting that they had to be at least 18, as other venues in the resort did. Witnesses claimed some of those in the basement appeared to be as young as 14.

Mme Pilloud said the most likely cause of the fire appeared to have been 'sparkling candles' placed in bottles that were brought too close to the basement ceiling, which caught fire.

Witnesses had said they believed the ceiling caught fire after a waitress lit a sparkler in a bottle.

She said no one had been charged over the blaze, but those involved could be prosecuted for 'homicide by negligence' depending on the results of the investigation.

Stéphane Ganzer, head of security for Valais, said witnesses' suggestions that the bar had no emergency exit were incorrect. 'This building has an emergency exit even if most of the people left by the main exit,' Ganzer told a press conference on Friday. 'Few people found the emergency exit.'

Swiss regulations stipulate at least three exits for establishments hosting more than 100 people. Witnesses estimated that about 200 people were crammed into the basement.

Pilloud said the inquiry would look at the building work as well as precautions such as provision of firefighting equipment and compliance with safety standards.

Questions will be asked about the venue's tolerance of sparklers in the confined space.  The flames triggered an 'embrasement généralisé éclair' or 'flashover', meaning that all flammable materials in the basement would have ignited more or less simultaneously because of the intense heat, according to Frédéric Gisler, the Valais police commander. 

'That can have an effect like an explosion, but in fact it was the fire spreading extremely fast,' he said.

Parents of missing youths have issued desperate pleas for news of ​their children, as foreign embassies scramble to work out if their nationals were among ​those caught up in one of the worst tragedies to befall modern Switzerland.

Police commander Frédéric Gisler said all bar six of the 119 injured have been formally identified, but Swiss officials are yet to share the names of any victims or injured. 

The injured included 71 Swiss nationals, 14 French and 11 Italians, along with citizens of Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Luxembourg, Belgium, Portugal and Poland, according to Frédéric Gisler, police commander of the Valais region. 

The nationalities of 14 people were still unclear.

Six Italians are still missing and 13 hospitalised, while eight French people are missing and another nine are among the injured.

Emmanuele is the only victim to have been named following the deadly fire, with the Italian Golf Federation paying tribute to the teen as a 'young athlete who embodied passion and authentic values'.

The Italian teenager, who was based in Dubai, was a member of the Italian national team and his best rank was 2440th, and was well known in the UAE junior and amateur golfing scene, according to GolfDigestme.com.

He was pictured with golfing legend Rory McIlroy last year and was widely regarded as a promising young talent, competing regularly across the Middle East and Europe. 

British-educated teenager Charlotte Neddam, who previously attended Immanuel College - a private Jewish school in Hertfordshire - is also among those missing.