PinnedAbout 40 people were killed and more than 100 injured, many gravely, in a fire in a bar at a ski resort town in the Swiss Alps during a New Year’s celebration on Thursday. The Swiss president said it was “one of the worst tragedies our country has ever experienced.”The blaze broke out in the early morning hours at Le Constellation, a bar in Crans-Montana, in the canton of Valais. Many of the victims were young people who had gathered to celebrate the New Year.“This tragedy occurred in a place that is naturally associated with life and joy,” said President Guy Parmelin, who postponed a scheduled New Year’s address to travel to the scene.The authorities said they were working to identify the dead and return their remains to their families. They were also interviewing witnesses and planned to analyze cellphones that were left at the scene, a prosecutor said.“As I speak, we are counting around 40 people dead and approximately 115 injured, most of them seriously,” the commander of the canton police, Frédéric Gisler, said at a news conference on Thursday evening.Smoke was first seen emanating from the bar around 1:30 a.m., the authorities said, and the central police dispatch received a call for help soon after.One witness, Bruno Martins, 17, said that when he went to the bar to meet friends, he found it in flames and surrounded by police officers. “It was total panic, people were trampling each other,” he said.Officials said they were still investigating the cause of the fire and an explosion that followed, but ruled out the possibility of a terrorist attack.“We have no suspects,” said Beatrice Pilloud, the prosecutor general for the region. “An investigation has been launched — not against anyone, but to shed light on the circumstances surrounding this tragic fire.”Emergency services sent 13 helicopters and 40 ambulances to transport the injured to hospitals, officials said. The emergency ward and operating rooms at the nearest major medical center ran out of space to treat the victims, they reported.“If you want to be useful, be careful,” Mathias Reynard, a local official, advised local residents. “Do not clog emergency services with situations that can be avoided.”Three specialized jets took burn victims to Zurich, the country’s largest city, about 90 miles away.The authorities did not identify any victims, but given the popularity of the town as a tourist destination, foreign nationals were likely to be among them, officials said.Here’s what else to know:Emergency response: The police said the area around the bar had been cordoned off and that a no-fly zone had been imposed over Crans-Montana, likely to make it easier for helicopters to reach the area.Crans-Montana: The upmarket destination caters to a mostly wealthy, sometimes famous, clientele. The region offers views of the Matterhorn, a mountain considered Switzerland’s most famous landmark, and other peaks like Mont Blanc. The town is home to roughly 10,000 people and has around 2,800 hotel beds.Le Constellation: The bar where the fire took place was a low-key venue, located near one of the gondolas that whisked skiers up the mountain. It was popular with a younger crowd and international visitors. The downstairs was often turned into a dance floor where live DJs played and the bar would regularly broadcast live sports events, like Premier League football and international rugby.Jan. 1, 2026, 4:28 p.m. ETAn air ambulance leaving the main hospital in Sion, Switzerland, the closest to the deadly fire, on Thursday.Credit...Pierre Albouy/ReutersThe number of people who suffered severe burns in the bar fire in the Swiss resort town of Crans-Montana far exceeds the capacity of Switzerland’s burn units in Zurich and Lausanne and its national disaster center in the capital, an emergency care official in Geneva said on Thursday.About 50 people are believed to have been badly burned, according to Dr. Robert Larribau, the head of emergency care at Geneva’s University Hospital, who was briefed by the national authorities.Officials in the capital, Bern, were coordinating with the European Union to find hospitals in neighboring countries that are able to take some of the victims, Dr. Larribau said. Transfers of patients to hospitals in Germany, Italy and France were expected to start later on Thursday or Friday, he said.The hospital closest to the fire, in Sion, Switzerland, was initially overwhelmed by the rush of victims, Dr. Larribau said. It was reported to have taken in around 60 people.Twenty-two others were sent to Lausanne. more than double the capacity of its burn center, Dr. Larribau said. Another 16 patients were transferred to Zurich University Hospital, and eight were sent to hospital in Bern.Four people, between the ages of 15 and around 25, were taken to Geneva University Hospital. Two were in intensive care and required transfer as soon as possible for specialized treatment, Dr. Larribau said.Three people suffering fractures and other nonburn injuries from an explosion that occurred at the bar as the fire raged made their own way to another Geneva hospital, he said.Jan. 1, 2026, 4:18 p.m. ETAt least nine French citizens were injured in the fire and at least eight are missing, France’s foreign ministry said on Thursday evening. Three victims have been transferred to hospitals in Paris and Lyon, it said, and “other evacuations of injured people are underway.”Jan. 1, 2026, 4:07 p.m. ETTil BürgyHundreds of worshippers at the Church of Montana Station in Crans-Montana remembered the victims of the fire during a New Year’s Mass on Thursday.Jan. 1, 2026, 2:45 p.m. ETCandles were lit and flowers laid outside the Constellation bar on Thursday night in tribute to the victims of the fire there.VideoCreditCredit...ReutersJan. 1, 2026, 2:24 p.m. ETSeveral hundred people have gathered near the burned bar in Crans-Montana, an Alpine resort town, laying flowers and waiting for news about relatives and friends. Many seem on the verge of tears.Credit...Til Bürgy for The New York TimesJan. 1, 2026, 2:21 p.m. ETBruno Martins, 17, said he had headed to The Constellation last night to meet friends. Instead, he found the bar in flames and surrounded by police officers. “It was total panic, people were trampling each other,” Martins said, speaking in the resort town of Crans-Montana. At least one of his friends was badly burned and is being treated at a hospital, he said, but others are unaccounted for. “It’s not real, it’s a shock,” he said. “Especially since it’s a bar we know so well.”Jan. 1, 2026, 2:15 p.m. ETAn informal memorial for the victims of the deadly fire at a bar in Crans-Montana, a ski resort town in southern Switzerland, on Thursday.Credit...Til Bürgy for The New York TimesThe deadly New Year’s fire at a bar in southern Switzerland on Thursday was the latest in a long line of disastrous fires at bars and nightclubs. Overcrowding, lax safety standards, noise, darkness and confusion can make such fires especially dangerous.Here is a list of some of the worst of those fires.December 2025Arpora, IndiaA fire in a nightclub in the state of Goa killed at least 25 people. Preliminary indications pointed to a firecracker as the cause, and the local authorities later barred fireworks, sparklers and pyrotechnics inside nightclubs, bars and restaurants.MARCH 2025Kocani, North MacedoniaA fire ripped through a nightclub that was hosting a pop concert, killing at least 59 people. The club was overcrowded and unlicensed, and it lacked escape routes, the police said. Witnesses said the club was poorly built and had a flammable cloth-covered ceiling.January 2013Santa Maria, BrazilMore than 200 people were killed after a flare from a band’s pyrotechnics display ignited the ceiling and started a fire in a nightclub that was filled with hundreds of university students. Witnesses and fire officials said security guards had blocked the main exit, thinking patrons were leaving without paying their tabs.December 2004Buenos AiresAt least 175 people were killed in a nightclub fire, apparently ignited by a flare. Thousands of people were packed in the club for a rock concert. The club was over capacity, and four of six exit doors were locked at the time of the fire to prevent people from entering without paying, government officials said.February 2003West Warwick, R.I.A fire started by the rock band Great White’s pyrotechnics display killed 100 people at a club called the Station. Patrons said the building was almost instantly engulfed in flames. Fire officials said proper permits had not been obtained for the pyrotechnics. The band’s guitarist Ty Longley was among those killed.December 2000Luoyang, ChinaMore than 300 people were killed in a fire at a disco in a department store on Christmas Day. Emergency exits were blocked by boxes, according to witnesses, who said the building had no sprinkler system or smoke alarms.MARCH 1990The BronxA man set a fire outside the Happy Land Social Club after a fight with his girlfriend, killing 87 people. The club had been ordered closed because it lacked sprinklers, fire alarms and fire exits, but remained open. Only six people survived. The arsonist served 25 years before dying in prison at 61. “I got angry, the devil got to me, and I set the fire,” he told the police.December 1983MadridA fire in a popular basement disco killed at least 78 people. Several exits were locked, employees said. The disco’s complicated design, with alcoves and twisting passageways over four floors, contributed to the disaster, emergency workers said.May 1977Southgate, Ky.A kitchen fire led to the deaths of at least 160 people at the Beverly Hills Supper Club. What had appeared initially to be a small fire at the nightclub spread rapidly, witnesses said. The headline act, the singer and television host John Davidson, was not injured, but his musical director was killed.November 1942BostonThe deadliest nightclub fire ever was at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub. Nearly 500 people were killed. Witnesses said the fire started when an artificial palm tree was set alight. As in many of the other deadly fires, the club was over capacity and exit doors were blocked. Barnett Welansky, the club’s operator, was convicted of reckless homicide and was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison.Jan. 1, 2026, 1:47 p.m. ETA view of the main hospital in Sion, Switzerland, which was inundated with victims of a deadly fire on Thursday.Credit...Pierre Albouy/ReutersIn the hours after the deadly overnight fire in a bar in a Swiss resort town, survivors desperately searched for news of the victims at the nearest major hospital, half an hour’s drive away in the town of Sion.Standing outside the main hospital in Sion on Thursday afternoon, Edoardo Saitta, 25, said he had rushed out the bar’s exit after seeing smoke. A friend was not so lucky, he said. She was trapped inside and was now being treated at the hospital for her injuries.Medical staff declined to let him see her, said Mr. Saitta, who is from northern Italy. She was to be transferred to a hospital in Milan.“I’m worried,” Mr. Saitta said, before heading back inside.Nearby, distraught people peppered medical workers with questions about their missing friends. Some left to search at a hospital in another city.With so many people injured, the hospital’s emergency department did not have enough beds, forcing the authorities to send some victims to hospitals as far away as Zurich, 90 miles by helicopter.Antonio Batista, 34, a patient whose stay at the hospital in Sion began before the fire occurred, said he had been woken by the sound of helicopters coming and going all night.“There was a lot of stress,” he said. “A lot of people were crying,” he said. “Now it’s calmer.”Jan. 1, 2026, 1:28 p.m. ETJohnny Marcelli, 27, a waiter who was at work close to the scene of the fire in the resort town of Crans-Montana, said he witnessed the smoke billowing from the bar, Le Constellation, and then the fire. He saw police officers rushing to the scene. “I had never seen so many in the village,” Marcelli said. He said he knew a waitress who worked at Le Constellation, but had heard no news of her.Jan. 1, 2026, 1:24 p.m. ETUrsula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the E.U.’s executive arm, posted on social media that the government was “liaising with Swiss authorities to provide medical assistance to the victims.”“Europe stands in full solidarity with Switzerland,” she wrote.Deeply saddened by the fire in Crans-Montana.My thoughts are with the victims, their families and all those affected.We are liaising with Swiss authorities to provide medical assistance to the victims through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.Europe stands in full…— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) January 1, 2026Jan. 1, 2026, 1:23 p.m. ETAn official in the Lombardy region, Guido Bertolaso, told reporters that three people injured in the fire were expected to arrive at any moment at Milan’s Niguarda hospital, which has one Italy’s best centers for the treatment of burns. He said the patients had burns on 30 to 40 percent of their bodies.Jan. 1, 2026, 12:56 p.m. ETAn eerie quiet has descended across the resort town of Crans-Montana, where I just arrived. The emergency services have mostly departed, apart from a handful of police officers. Most of the streets around the fire-ravaged bar have been cordoned off by the police, who are only allowing access to local residents.Credit...Til Bürgy for The New York TimesJan. 1, 2026, 12:27 p.m. ETThere is an individual business named for the town in which the bar fire occurred, the Crans-Montana Resort, but it does not operate the bar. The business’s managing director released a statement on Thursday, saying: “We are deeply saddened by last night’s tragedy.” The official, Pete Petrovski, the Crans-Montana Resort would support the local authorities “in any appropriate way.” The mountain will still be open for skiing.Jan. 1, 2026, 12:20 p.m. ETRoughly 30 Italians are believed to have been at the bar where the fire occurred, according to the Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani. Roughly 16 are unaccounted for, he said, and a similar number are being treated in hospital.Jan. 1, 2026, 12:19 p.m. ETEdoardo Saitta, 25, from northern Italy, said he survived the fire, escaping the bar seconds after seeing smoke. Saitta said he had been waiting here all day at the hospital in Sion, the closest one to the town where the fire occurred. He was hoping for news of a friend who was injured after being trapped inside the bar, but had not been able to see her. He said he was told she would be transferred to a hospital in Milan. “I’m worried,” he said.Jan. 1, 2026, 12:15 p.m. ETI’m outside a hospital in Sion, Switzerland, the nearest to where the fire occurred. Distraught members of the public have arrived to see if their missing friends were brought here for treatment after being hurt in the fire. One group just left for another hospital, saying that they could not find their friends here.Jan. 1, 2026, 12:15 p.m. ETThe second news conference of the day has ended. The authorities shared a grim prelimary toll of roughly 40 dead and 115 injured but offered little sense of when any details on the cause of the fire would be clear.Jan. 1, 2026, 12:06 p.m. ETBeatrice Pilloud, the regional prosecutor general, said at the news conference that the police were not looking for any perpetrators in the fire. “We have no suspects,” she said. “An investigation has been launched, not against anyone, but to shed light on the circumstances surrounding this tragic fire.”Jan. 1, 2026, 11:56 a.m. ETSwiss authorities said it was too early to comment on the cause of the fire and on any potential security lapses at the bar that was devastated by the flames. “I am not in a position to confirm anything,” Beatrice Pilloud, the regional prosecutor general, said at the news conference. “The investigation is ongoing.”Credit...Til Bürgy for The New York TimesJan. 1, 2026, 11:49 a.m. ETAbout 60 people were taken to a hospital in Sion, near the resort town where the fire occurred, the authorities said, seriously straining medical services there. “If you want to be useful, be careful,” Mathias Reynard, a local official, told local residents at the news conference. “Do not clog emergency services with situations that can be avoided.”Jan. 1, 2026, 11:44 a.m. ETBeatrice Pilloud, the prosecutor general for the area, said at the news conference that the authorities were focused on identifying the victims and returning the bodies to their families. The police have interviewed several witnesses and will analyze cell phones that were left at the scene, she said. “There are still many circumstances to be clarified,” she said. “The current leading theory is that a widespread fire caused an explosion.”Jan. 1, 2026, 11:37 a.m. ETThe police in Crans-Montana, the resort town where the fire broke out, said at the news conference that around 40 people had been killed and roughly 115 injured, but that those were preliminary numbers.Jan. 1, 2026, 11:32 a.m. ETMathias Reynard, a top official in the local government, said at the news conference that many people were gravely injured and had suffered serious burns.Jan. 1, 2026, 11:30 a.m. ETFlags in Switzerland will fly at half-staff for five days, Parmelin said.Jan. 1, 2026, 11:28 a.m. ET“This tragedy occurred in a place that is naturally associated with life and joy,” Parmelin said. “What a terrible contrast, what cruel irony.”Jan. 1, 2026, 10:47 a.m. ETHospital du Valais in Sion, Switzerland, quickly filled up with victims of the fire.Credit...Pierre Albouy/ReutersVictims of the devastating fire that ripped through a nightclub in southern Switzerland early on New Year’s Day have been transported by helicopter and specialized jet for treatment at hospitals across the country.The intensive care and surgery wards at the main hospital in Sion, in Valais, the local canton, or state, quickly filled up, the Swiss authorities said.Officials sent 10 helicopters and 150 medical emergency responders to the scene in the ski resort town of Crans-Montana early Thursday morning.Rega, a Swiss Air Rescue service that was helping to coordinate an effort to get injured people to hospitals, said three ambulance jets were carrying victims to major hospitals in big Swiss cities. Philipp Simmen, head of helicopter operations for Rega, told the Swiss broadcaster SRF that “a large number of young patients” were among the injured.Early Thursday, the authorities began moving burn victims to bigger, specialized hospitals in Geneva, about 65 miles west; Zurich, about 85 miles northeast; and Lausanne, about 45 miles northwest.Two hospitals in Switzerland have specialized treatment facilities for major burns, one each in Lausanne and Zurich, according to Claire Charmet, the director of the Lausanne University Hospital, which has one of the burn facilities. Ms. Charmet told 24 Heures, a Swiss news website, that her hospital had received 22 patients injured in the fire. She said most of the survivors were ages 16 to 26.Although most of the severely burned victims will be treated in those two hospitals, some could be sent to neighboring countries if the need arises, said Mathias Gehrig, a spokesman for Rega.Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said the country had offered the Swiss authorities the use of the burn unit at the Niguarda Hospital in Milan.Jan. 1, 2026, 9:05 a.m. ETPolice officers investigate the area where the fire at Le Constellation bar broke out in Crans-Montana, a popular ski resort town in Switzerland.Credit...Alessandro Della Valle/Keystone, via Associated PressThe Alpine resort town of Crans-Montana, where a fire at a bar is believed to have killed dozens and injured about 100 more, is more than a century old and is known as a high-end destination popular with families and international visitors.The town lies about 120 miles east of Geneva in the French-speaking Valais region, and offers sweeping views from a plateau above the Rhone Valley. It is famed for gourmet restaurants, luxury stores and hosting big sporting events, including World Cup ski competitions and major golf tournaments. The area was scheduled to host the men’s and women’s World Cup races later this month. Roger Moore, the late James Bond actor, had a home there for many years.The Crans-Montana Resort does not operate the bar where the fire occurred. The resort’s managing director, Pete Petrovski, released a statement, saying, “We are deeply saddened by last night’s tragedy,” and adding that the resort would support the efforts of local authorities.A skier walking near Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana on Thursday.Credit...Alessandro Della Valle/Keystone, via Associated PressAmin Momen, the founder of Momentum Experiences, a London-based travel company that organizes corporate ski events, said that the bar, Le Constellation, was a “casual” spot, rather than the type of luxury nightspot that the town is known for. The bar was big, with an upstairs and downstairs area, he said, adding that foreign visitors often went there to watch sports, like Premier League soccer. December, Mr. Momen added, would have been a popular time for families to holiday in the town.The bar was also popular with young people, according to SRF, Switzerland’s public broadcaster.The authorities said the victims of the fire were likely of many nationalities.About three million people visit Crans-Montana each year, according to its website. Most of them are from Switzerland, but about a fifth of its clientele are international tourists, led by Italian and French visitors.Aurelien Breeden and Christopher F. Schuetze contributed reporting.