Valais canton police commander Frédéric Gisler addressed the public on Thursday, stating that the immediate priority of the authorities is to identify those who lost their lives and to inform their families. “Behind these numbers are faces, names, families, destinies brutally interrupted,” Swiss President Guy Parmelin said during a press conference, noting that the victims included Swiss residents and tourists from neighboring countries. Mathias Reynard, president of the state council of the Valais canton, described the night as one that should have been a moment of celebration but instead turned into a nightmare for the community.
The primary legal and investigative question currently before Swiss authorities is the cause of the ignition. Beatrice Pilloud, the Valais canton attorney, clarified that the investigation is not directed against any specific individual at this stage, but rather aims to shed light on the circumstances surrounding the fire. Officials have explicitly ruled out the possibility of a deliberate attack. Pilloud stated that while investigators do not believe the fire was caused by a primary explosion, the working assumption is that a general fire led to an explosive event. The legal focus remains on determining whether negligence or accidental conduct contributed to the disaster.
Emerging evidence points toward an accidental cause involving festive items. Swiss officials indicated on Friday that the fire was likely started accidentally by fireworks or sparklers positioned close to the ceiling. This hypothesis aligns with witness accounts provided to broadcasters. Two women who were inside the venue described seeing a male bartender carrying a female bartender on his shoulders; the female bartender was reportedly holding a lit candle in a bottle, which set the wooden ceiling alight. The flames spread rapidly, causing the ceiling to collapse. A 16-year-old survivor from Paris described seeing waitresses holding Champagne bottles with sparklers immediately before the inferno erupted.
The structural layout of the venue played a significant role in the severity of the casualties. Witnesses described a chaotic crowd surge as patrons attempted to escape from a basement nightclub up a narrow flight of stairs and through a single narrow door. Some individuals were seen smashing windows to escape, while panicked parents rushed to the scene in vehicles to check for their children. The rapid spread of fire and the constrained exit routes contributed to the high number of injuries, with at least 22 of the seriously injured reported to be between the ages of 16 and 26.
Emergency response was mobilized within minutes of the first reports. Helicopters and ambulances rushed to the scene to assist victims, transporting the injured to hospitals across the country. By 5:00 a.m., all injured parties were receiving medical treatment. Footage verified by news organizations showed the building ablaze with thick smoke billowing into the air, while emergency services worked to secure the area, which was subsequently sealed off with police tape.
As the investigation proceeds, the legal focus will shift toward determining liability and the specific mechanisms that allowed the fire to spread with such force. While the initial phase of the inquiry centers on the physical cause of the blaze, the subsequent stages will examine safety protocols and the structural integrity of the venue. The identification of the victims remains the paramount operational task for Swiss police, a process that will take time as forensic teams work to confirm the identities of the deceased. The legal proceedings that may follow will hinge on the findings of this ongoing investigation into the sequence of events that led to the ignition and the subsequent failure of evacuation measures.
