"We left the phone on" Valais family fights for their three daughters after fire inferno
Three daughters in hospital, everyday life in a state of emergency: after the fire in the Le Constellation nightclub, a Valais family is fighting for the lives and recovery of their children.
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- Three daughters of a Valais family were injured or traumatized in the Constellation fire.
- Two young women suffered severe burns and are being treated in specialized clinics.
- The parents describe a night of hope, uncertainty and hours of waiting.
Two young women were also seriously injured in the fire at the Le Constellation nightclub in Crans-Montana on New Year's Eve. They are two sisters aged 20 and 18. Their 14-year-old sister was not in the restaurant at the time of the accident, but is in shock and is receiving medical care. All three daughters come from a family in Valais.
According to the parents' statement to the "Nouvelliste", the two older daughters had spent the New Year at the Constellation. Shortly after midnight, they phoned their parents to wish them a happy New Year. A little later, there was a fire in the restaurant.
In the early hours of the morning, the father received a call from Crans-Montana. He set off immediately. He searched for his daughters on site while rescue workers tended to the injured and initial investigations were carried out.
"She tore her clothes off"
"I was there at 2.02 am. It was a battlefield. I was looking for my daughter, I was screaming. Everyone was screaming," he says. A bizarre picture emerged at the scene. Paramedics and the fire department are already on site. Some are performing resuscitation directly on the street. An "emergency point for the injured" was set up. Young people were lying on the ground.
One of the daughters was quickly found. She had suffered severe burns and was initially taken to a hospital in Valais. There was initially no trace of the second daughter. It was only hours later that the parents were informed that she had also been rescued alive. She was in a critical condition and received medical treatment.
One of the daughters realized that she was on fire, the mother told the newspaper. "She had the reflex to tear the clothes off her body. Her skin tore off too, but that's how we prevented her hair from catching fire."
Due to the severity of the injuries, both young women were later transferred to a specialized center in St. Gallen. They are still being treated there. Since then, the parents have been commuting between different hospitals to be with their children.
The youngest daughter, who was at home during the fire, is also receiving medical care. According to the parents, she is in shock.
The family is expecting a lengthy treatment and rehabilitation phase. Several operations have already been necessary and more could follow.
How Laëtitia experienced the inferno
Other survivors also described the dramatic minutes in the bar shortly after the tragedy . Laëtitia, 17 years old, said she had only been in the basement bar for a short time when the situation escalated. "About a minute before the fire broke out, I suddenly heard 'fire, fire'," she said in an interview with French television station BFMTV.
Then panic broke out. "We started running. The fire spread very, very quickly and the smoke burned our eyes. We couldn't breathe," said the teenager. She also felt an explosion near the ground. "I felt it on my legs," said Laëtitia. People in the crowd were pushing and shoving, "all like crazy".
