Eyewitnesses are sharing their harrowing experiences following a devastating blaze that engulfed a bar in Switzerland, resulting in numerous fatalities and injuries earlier this week.
An 18-year-old witness recounted his frantic attempts to save lives, believing his younger brother might be trapped inside. “I thought my little brother was inside, so I came and tried to break the window to help people escape, and afterward, I went in,” he told the BBC. “I saw people burning… people engulfed in flames from head to foot, no clothes left,” he said, describing the scene as “very shocking.”
Fortunately, his brother was unscathed, as reported by the news outlet. Reflecting on his routine visits to the bar, he added, “I went to this bar every day this week — the day I didn’t go, it burned.”
Another witness, Daniella, was traveling home with her husband after dinner when she stumbled upon the tragic event, the BBC noted.
Photographs capture police and rescue teams stationed beside a fire truck at the site of the tragic incident at Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana on January 1, 2026. (Maxime Schmid / AFP via Getty Images)
Police officers and rescuers stand next to a firefighters’ vehicle on the site of a fire that ripped through the bar Le Constellation in Crans-Montana on January 1, 2026. (Maxime Schmid / AFP via Getty Images)
“People were running in all directions, screaming and crying. I saw several people being carried out on stretchers,” she told the outlet. “A young man came up to me and said he’d seen hell — things he would never forget. And then I just froze.”
Gianni Campolo, 19, headed to the bar to assist first responders after getting a call from a friend who escaped the fire, according to the Associated Press.
Mourners gather to leave flowers and candles at the scene after a fire broke out overnight at Le Constellation bar on Jan. 1, 2026, in Crans-Montana, Switzerland. (Harold Cunningham/Getty Images)
“I have seen horror, and I don’t know what else would be worse than this,” Campolo informed TF1, according to the AP.
Ferdinand Du Beaudiez, a 19-year-old who escaped from the fire in the bar, said that he went back in to look for his brother, his girlfriend and others, and noted that he “couldn’t think to let them stay in the fire when I was alive outside.”
He said the first time he headed back in, he found a person “laying in the stairs” who “was completely burned, clothes were burned” — he explained that he could not tell if the individual was a man or a woman. He “slid” the person “on the ground, and he was being taken care of, um, outside … ” the survivor recalled.
This photograph shows the area around the bar Le Constellation after a fire ripped through the venue during the New Year’s Eve celebrations in the luxury Alpine ski resort town of Crans-Montana, on Jan. 1, 2026. (Maxime Schmid / AFP via Getty Images)
The second time he headed back in, he experienced “more smoke,” and he “could breathe less,” he said, explaining he “went in, couldn’t see anything and went straight out.”
He eventually found his girlfriend, who told him where his brother was.
