Swiss police install barriers at ski resort bar, where fire killed dozens

Investigators on Friday (January 2) set about the painful task of identifying the burned bodies of a blaze that engulfed a crowded bar and killed around 40 people at a New Year's Eve party in the upscale Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana.

So severe were the burns suffered by the mostly young crowd of revelers in the Le Constellation bar that Swiss officials said it could take days before they name all the victims of the fire that also injured 115, many of them seriously.

Mathias Reynard, head of government of the canton of Valais, said experts were using dental and DNA samples for the task.

Since the early hours of the Friday morning, police secured the area near the bar where the fire took place with barricade tape, barriers and tents.

What caused the blaze was unclear. Swiss authorities said it appeared to be an accident rather than an attack.

Some accounts from survivors and footage broadcast on social media suggested that the ceiling of the bar's basement may have caught fire when sparkling candles got too close.

Residents of Crans-Montana, which has the distinction of being not only a popular draw for skiers, but also golfers, were stunned by the inferno. Many knew victims and some said they were lucky not to have been there themselves.

Dozens of people left flowers or lit candles at makeshift memorials on the road leading to the bar which police had cordoned off.

Behind the cordon, the bodies of some victims still lay in the bar, police said, as they pledged to work around the clock to identify everyone who succumbed to the blaze.

-Noemie Olive, Stephanie Lecocq and Michaela Cabrera