Teen recounts horror after Crans-Montana bar blaze

A 15-year-old Italian holidaymaker has described returning to a scene of horror after a fire ripped through the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana on New Year's Eve. Lupo Guagliumi said he left the basement bar shortly before the blaze when some friends wanted to go to another party, and came back to find flames, bodies on the floor and people screaming.

"We saw terrible things… we saw flames. Unfortunately, bodies on the floor, people screaming and then police came," he told Sky News. He said he tried to help but was ordered back, and that the experience was traumatising because some friends were not answering their phones. Guagliumi believes three friends are in intensive care with severe burns and placed in an induced coma, and that at least five others are hospitalised with serious burns.

He said around 10–15 people were unaccounted for, adding: "Not knowing where they are, if they maybe passed, or if they're in a hospital somewhere, not being able to be recognised or IDed." The teenager, who has holidayed with his family in the resort for about a decade, said the bar had been packed with teenagers for the New Year and that sparklers raised in champagne bottles close to the ceiling are now being blamed for igniting the fire.

Becoming emotional, he said the resort that brought him joy is now scarred by trauma and uncertainty. "I could have stayed there," he said.

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Health, United States, World, Switzerland, Crans-montana, Bar Fire, Teens