Sixteen-year-old Chiara Costanzo is among the victims of the New Year’s Eve tragedy. An investigation has been opened for negligent fire, manslaughter and injuries. Safety, emergency exits and the use of pyrotechnic candles are under attack
48 hours after the Crans-Montana tragedy, the agony of parents who still have no news about their children continues, but the most terrible phone call has also arrived. The father of sixteen-year-old Chiara Costanzo, who was among the missing, told Corriere della Sera: «I just received the phone call that should never reach a father. A dull, unspeakable pain: my beloved Chiara is no longer here.” Meanwhile, a picture emerges in which it becomes increasingly clear how precarious the Constellation’s security measures were. The Swiss prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation, with the possible crimes including negligent fire, manslaughter and negligent injury.
«All slopes are open»
During yesterday’s press conference in Sion, the Valais general prosecutor, Beatrice Pilloud, stated that “all tracks are open”. He added that “everything suggests that the fire actually started from flares or sparkling candles placed on bottles, too close to the ceiling.” The investigation will try to shed light on the safety and fire prevention measures, the materials used, the evacuation exits, the number of people present. The owners of the Constellation, who are reportedly cooperating with the authorities, said that the bar had been inspected “three times in ten years” and that “everything was done according to the rules”. But the Foreign Minister himself, Antonio Tajani, who went to the site of the tragedy yesterday, told Tg2 Post: «I only entered the hall of the restaurant, but it is clear that something didn’t work there, especially with the emergency exits. There was great confusion, the fire prevention measures did not work as they should.”
The videos and the dynamics of the fire
If the time for official responses has not yet arrived, the videos recorded inside the venue become the pieces of a puzzle which on the one hand help to clarify the causes of the catastrophe and on the other raise doubts. The video images, in fact, show that while the place was burning, the young people were abandoned to themselves: the music had not been turned off, there were no fire extinguishers or adults giving evacuation orders. And it is above all thanks to the videos that light is being shed on the dynamics: the most popular hypothesis on the cause of the fire remains that of the pyrotechnic candle being too close to the ceiling. This scenario is confirmed by images that appear to precede the fire, published by the Daily Mail: you can clearly see a person, with his face covered by the Guy Fawkes mask, carrying a girl on his shoulders, also with her face covered by a black helmet. The woman is holding a bottle on which a lit pyrotechnic candle is placed. And it is definitely close to the ceiling covered in soundproofing material. And it seems from that moment the fire broke out.
Parents’ nightmare
The updated toll speaks of 40 dead and 119 injured, of which 80 in serious condition. But with the flames having eliminated the identity, there are only six victims identified, while 113 are the injured who have a name. The hope that the parents of the very young cling to is that their children are among the survivors, still unidentified, being treated in hospitals. Meanwhile, to help families find their loved ones, the Cransmontana.avisderecherche page was immediately opened on Instagram: the appeals were shared, with images of the boys and girls who disappeared into thin air after the fire. “The sole purpose is to collect missing persons notices for those who have not been heard from since the tragic New Year’s Eve in Crans-Montana” is written in one post.
Chiara Costanzo’s father was called “to identify her”
Yesterday ended with the Italian report of six boys missing and 13 injured, five of which with serious burns. But this morning, Andrea Costanzo, the father of sixteen-year-old Chiara, declared to Corriere della Sera: «I just received the phone call that should never reach a father. A dull, unspeakable pain: my beloved Chiara is no longer here.” Yesterday Tajani, urging caution, stated: “Among the hundred injured, between three and six have not yet been identified, we hope they are Italian but before giving any news we must use great caution.” But it is also true that waiting is agony for parents. «I haven’t known anything about my son for two days, it’s a nerve-wracking wait. There is no news, because Switzerland doesn’t say anything” said Carla Masiello, the mother of the sixteen-year-old from Bologna, Giovanni Tamburi. In addition to the boy from Bologna, there is still no news of Riccardo Minghetti, Giuliano Biasini, or Achille Barosi. Caution was requested for seventeen-year-old Emanuele Galeppini, whose death was announced by the Italian Golf Federation, as his family members await the results of the DNA test
