Witnesses say birthday candles on champagne bottles may have sparked Swiss ski bar fire

Friday, 2 January 2026

Two French women, Emma and Albane, who said they were inside the bar at the time, told French broadcaster BFMTV they saw a waitress place birthday candles on top of champagne bottles shortly before the fire broke out.

“One of the candles was too close to the ceiling and it caught fire,” they said.

“In a matter of seconds, the entire ceiling was ablaze. Everything was made of wood.”

The pair said flames spread rapidly filling the venue with smoke and panic as people tried to escape.

They described the evacuation as “very difficult” saying exit routes were extremely narrow and staircases leading outside even tighter.

“We were very lucky,” they said, estimating around 200 people were trying to get out within half a minute through the cramped stairway.

About 40 people were killed and another 115 injured, most of them seriously, during a New Year’s celebration in a Swiss Alpine bar, police said Thursday.

Regional police commander Frédéric Gisler said emergency services were alerted after smoke was seen coming from the bar at about 1.30am local time.

Police were first on the scene, followed by a large deployment of firefighters and rescue crews.

The injured were taken to hospitals across Switzerland, with a specialist burns unit in Milan, Italy, also placed on standby to treat victims.

The director of Lausanne University Hospital told a Swiss newspaper that 22 patients had been transferred to the hospital so far, most of them aged between 16 and 26.

Regional chief prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud said authorities continued efforts to identify the victims and return the bodies to their families as quickly as possible.

The investigation into the exact cause of the fire is ongoing.