A Swiss-Italian banker has been hailed a hero after forcing open an emergency door to save ten young people from a devastating New Year's Eve fire that ripped through a packed nightclub in the ski resort of Crans-Montana.
A Father's Desperate Race to the Scene
Paolo Campolo, a 55-year-old financial analyst, raced from his home just 50 yards away after receiving a frantic call from his teenage daughter. She was waiting to enter the Le Constellation bar but told her father that her boyfriend and friends were trapped inside as flames engulfed the basement venue.
Upon arrival, Mr Campolo found the main entrance blocked by a crush of panicked revellers trying to escape the roaring flames and choking smoke. Spotting a side door, he and another man managed to prise it open, allowing a stream of terrified young people to spill out to safety.
Online footage appears to show the moment a man forces open a door to the right of the main entrance, with a distressed young woman immediately bursting out. While not confirmed to be Mr Campolo, the clip captures the chaos of the escape.
The Harrowing Scene Inside
Speaking from a hospital bed in Sion where he is being treated for smoke inhalation, the heroic father described the traumatic scene he confronted.
"There were several bodies all around. Alive but burnt. Some conscious, others not," he told Italian newspaper Il Messaggero. "They were begging for help in several languages. They were very young."
Mr Campolo recounted pulling injured youngsters out with his bare hands, one after the other. He said the most haunting memory was "the lucid desperation of those who know they're dying. Burned people looking at you and asking you not to leave them there. It's something that never goes away."
His daughter had a miraculous escape, having stopped at home to celebrate the New Year with her parents moments before the fire took hold. While she was unharmed, her boyfriend is now fighting for his life in a Basel hospital.
Investigation Points to Sparklers as Likely Cause
Swiss authorities have stated that sparkling candles atop champagne bottles are the most probable cause of the catastrophic blaze. Officials are examining whether the sound-dampening foam material on the ceiling complied with regulations and if the use of such sparklers was permitted in the bar.
Beatrice Pilloud, attorney general for the Valais region, confirmed the investigation is also scrutinising emergency exits, fire extinguishers, and the bar's occupancy levels at the time. She warned that prosecutions for negligent homicide are possible if criminal liability is established.
Harrowing video footage, filmed by French economics student Ferdinand Du Beaudiez, shows revellers continuing to sing and dance, unaware of the flames spreading across the ceiling above them. This delay in reaction cost crucial seconds for escape.
Mr Du Beaudiez described seeing a waitress take a bottle with a sparkler on her shoulder, which then set light to the insulating foam ceiling. His attempts to douse the flames with water from a fridge were futile. He escaped but bravely re-entered the inferno twice to rescue his brother and girlfriend.
Victims and Aftermath
The fire resulted in at least 40 fatalities and left 119 people injured, 80 of them critically. Identifying the victims is proving difficult due to the severity of the burns, a process officials warn could take days.
Among the missing is 15-year-old Charlotte Niddam, a French-born teenager previously educated in Britain at Immanuel College in Hertfordshire and the Jewish Free School in north London. Friends and former schools have shared heartfelt appeals for news of her safety.
The owners of Le Constellation, French couple Jacques and Jessica Moretti, broke their silence on Friday, stating they can "neither sleep nor eat." Mr Moretti defended the bar's safety, claiming it had been inspected three times in the past decade and that "everything had been done according to regulation."
The community of Crans-Montana and families across Europe are now left in mourning, with candles laid at a makeshift memorial near the charred remains of the bar, as a complex investigation into one of Switzerland's worst nightclub disasters gets underway.
