‘For us, 2026 doesn’t exist’: parent of Swiss bar fire victim

Many families are still living through the aftermath of the fatal fire Keystone / Alessandro Della Valle

The fatal New Year’s Eve fire in Crans-Montana has turned the lives of the victims' families upside down. They are struggling to cope with their new reality, and some are critical of Switzerland.

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A month after the fire at the Constellation bar in the Swiss ski resort, around 70 people are still hospitalised with severe burns. Swiss public broadcaster RTS spoke with some victims and their relatives.

+ Crans-Montana tragedy highlights limits of Swiss federal system

“For us, 2026 doesn’t exist. Everything has been at a standstill since New Year’s Eve,” said Lionel Aubrun as he summarised the brutal upheaval that dozens of families have experienced.

Aubrun and his family moved to Metz after January 1, about 170 kilometres from their home, to be as close as possible to their son Matthieu. The 27-year-old had started working as a waiter at the Constellation bar two weeks before the disaster. He suffered severe burns over about a quarter of his body and serious lung damage from the toxic fumes.

Need to be strong

Today, Matthieu is out of danger. However, the rehabilitation phase will be lengthy. To ensure the skin grafts heal completely, Matthieu must avoid direct sunlight for approximately two years and wear a compression suit for 23 hours a day during this period, explains his father, Lionel.

Xavier Mittaz commutes between Sion and Lyon, where his 17-year-old son Jérémie is in hospital. The young man had worked as a ski instructor to pay the CHF250 for the Constellation’s New Year’s Eve party himself, the father explains.

With burns covering almost 20% of his body, he needed several transplants. “We try to be strong because we have to pass that strength on to our son,” said Xavier.

In St Gallen, Alain and Leila Micheloud are watching over their two daughters. Farah has undergone seven operations. “It affected her whole group of friends. There were ten of them at the table. No family was spared,” says her mother, Leila.

Parents in denial

She recounts the hours after the fire. Parents desperately searched for their children in an improvised crisis room. “It was so loud and yet so quiet,” Leila recalls. “All the parents were in denial. Nobody wanted to talk to the psychologists. Because that would have meant admitting that our children might be dead.”

Then came the moment when the police took DNA samples. “I’ll leave it to you to imagine what that’s like.”

The three families have filed a complaint. Lionel Aubrun knows it will be a long road. “I feel no anger or desire for revenge. I think there are people who have failed. It’s up to those people to say: ‘We have failed. We will pay for it.'”

The Aubrun family goes to the hospital every day to visit Matthieu. “We were lucky, because several people offered us free accommodation,” says Lionel. The Victim Assistance Act will cover part of the costs. The family is also waiting for CHF10,000 promised by the canton of Valais.

Adapted from German by AI/mga

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