CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Dozens of young partygoers hurt in a New Year's Eve bar fire in Switzerland were transferred to specialist burn units across Europe with serious injuries on Friday after being hit by the devastating blaze, which has killed at least 40.
Initial findings showed the fire that spread among the mostly young crowd of revellers in Le Constellation bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana was likely caused by sparkler candles being carried too close to the ceiling, the local prosecutor said.
Meanwhile, investigators focused on the painful task of identifying the burned bodies, warning that this process was very sensitive and would take time.
So severe were the burns that Swiss officials said it could take days before they name all those killed in the fire. The official toll is 40 dead, while 119 have been injured, many of them very seriously. Those numbers are not final, officials said.
"Many of those injured are still fighting for their lives today," Valais area chief Mathias Reynard told a news conference.
Around 50 of the injured have been, or will be, transferred to burn units in hospitals elsewhere in Europe, he said. Germany and France are among the countries treating some of the injured.
Of the injured, 113 have been identified, 71 of whom are Swiss, 14 French and 11 Italian, four Serbian, one Bosnian, one Belgian, one Polish, one Portuguese and one Luxembourgish, police chief Frederic Gisler told the same news conference.
FIRE LIKELY CAUSED BY PARTY CANDLES
Initial investigations suggest that the fire which tore through the Swiss ski resort bar started when 'fountain candles' were carried aloft too close to the ceiling, local prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud said.
"Everything suggests that the fire started from the burning candles or 'Bengal lights' that had been attached to champagne bottles," she told the news conference, adding that, while this hypothesis was likely, it was not yet confirmed. "From there, a rapid, very rapid and widespread conflagration ensued."
The investigation was also checking whether the ceiling's insulation foam was to blame for the rapid spread of the fire, Pilloud said.
Further investigations will show if anyone needs to be held criminally liable for negligence, she added.
Axel, who was in the basement where the fire started, told reporters he did not know how he "miraculously" made it out.
He turned over a table and hid behind it to protect himself from the fire, before making his way upstairs. "We couldn't see anything, I was half choking," he said. He used a table, and then his feet, to break a window to get out, avoiding what he said was a single door that was too narrow for the many people trying to escape.
DESPERATE SEARCH
A 16-year-old Italian international golfer who lived in Dubai was the first victim to be identified publicly.
The Italian Golf Federation said it "mourns the passing of Emanuele Galeppini, a young athlete who carried with him passion and genuine values."
Parents and friends of missing youths issued pleas for news of their loved ones as foreign embassies scrambled to work out if their nationals were among those caught up in one of the worst tragedies to befall modern Switzerland.
Laetitia Brodard-Sitre, the mother of 16-year-old Arthur, was looking for information near the site of the blaze.
"We are together, we are in shock, we take each other in our arms and we cry. We try to give each other hope," she said of her relatives and others of those missing.
Marco, a 20-year-old from Milan, told Reuters outside the Constellation bar that twenty of his friends were missing.
"Some of them are injured, in bad condition. Some of them are completely safe. And some of our friends, we don't have any news. They told us they never found them," he said. "Nobody can help us find our friends."
ITALIAN, FRENCH AMONG THE MISSING
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who was in Switzerland, said that 13 Italians were in hospital and six registered as missing.
France's embassy to Switzerland said eight French citizens were unaccounted for, while another nine had been injured and were receiving care.
Visitors and residents of Crans-Montana, which is a popular draw not only for skiers, but also golfers, were stunned by the inferno.
Dozens of people left flowers or lit candles on a makeshift altar at the top of the road leading to the bar which police had cordoned off. Some cried, others quietly hugged one another.
"It could have been us," Emma, an 18-year-old from Geneva, said outside the cordoned-off bar.
"There was an enormous queue so we decided not to go in," she said. "I see those missing and it's all people our age."
Elisa Sousa, 17, said she was meant to be there but ended up spending the evening at a family gathering instead.
"And honestly, I'll need to thank my mother a hundred times for not letting me go," she said at the vigil for the victims. "Because God knows where I'd be now."
(Reporting by Dave Graham and Emma Farge; Additional reporting by Tassilo Hummel, Charlotte Van Campenhout, Benoit Van Overstraeten, Christine Chen, Crispian Balmer; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Alistair Bell, Raju Gopalakrishnan, Alex Richardson and Philippa Fletcher)
