The inferno in Crans-Montana has sent shockwaves through Switzerland. But the rude awakening is yet to come with in-depth analysis of the fire disaster.
When a nightclub went up in flames in North Macedonia in March 2025, claiming 62 lives and leaving 193 people injured – some seriously – voices in Switzerland were quick to say:
“Typical of Eastern Europe” and “Something like that couldn’t happen here.”
Synagogue in the same building
Now, just a few months later, on New Year’s Eve, reality has taught us that a similar fire disaster in Crans-Montana in the canton of Valais has also claimed at least 40 lives and left 119 people injured, some of them seriously.
A fire caused by sparklers is said to have led to the Swiss tragedy.
However, arson cannot be ruled out, as the local synagogue is also located in the same building as the bar “La Constellation” at 35 Rue Centrale.
A lot of time lost?
It was not until shortly before 10 p.m. on January 2nd that the Swiss authorities issued a communiqué admitting that Switzerland did not have sufficient medical capacity to treat such a large number of patients with severe burns. This press release is not even available in English.
The Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP) announced that Switzerland had therefore requested assistance from abroad via the Union Civil Protection Mechanism.
The tragedy occurred shortly after midnight on New Year’s Eve.
Suddenly, the EU and even the healthcare systems in Italy and Germany are good enough for Switzerland.
Medical criteria only
However, the National Association for Disaster Medicine KATAMED, formerly the Coordinated Medical Service of Switzerland, did not even have procedures in place for dealing with such a situation.
KATAMED had only just established a strategy for transferring patients from Crans-Montana based on provisional procedures, according to the media release.
Around 50 transfers are expected, the FOCP added. Patients will be allocated to the available treatment places abroad according to medical criteria, depending on their condition and injuries.
“Medical decisions are the decisive factor,” it said.
Relatives must understand the criteria applied and the urgency of the situation, even if this is an indescribably difficult situation for the families, according to the authorities.
Swiss patients given preference?
Another communiqué was issued today, Sunday, which only mentions 35 transfers.
The Swiss authorities did not say what happened to the other victims. Seven people were transferred to Belgium, another seven to Germany, 15 to France, and six to Italy, according to a somewhat unclear statement on the situation.
The FOCP surprisingly announced that the country had now prioritized hospital beds as close to Switzerland as possible for Swiss patients.
The language and any family connections in the destination country were also important, and affected relatives had consented to the transfer abroad.
Race against time
“By January 3, 2026, the majority of medically urgent transfers requested by the hospitals had been carried out,” the BABS explained three days after the devastating fire.
Leila Harhaus-Wähner, director of the Clinic for Severe Burn Injuries and Plastic Surgery at the Berlin Accident Hospital, told the German newspaper “Die Welt” that there had been 40 requests for help for burn victims from Crans-Montana in Germany alone.
In cases of severe burns, it is crucial that victims receive treatment very quickly, according to the medical professor. It is essential to set the course and treat the organ systems protectively in the early phase, in the first 48 hours, so to speak.
This clearly contradicts the leisurely pace of action taken by the Swiss authorities.
Clarification is needed
Whether the initial treatment at the Valais Cantonal Hospital was carried out properly will therefore have to be investigated.
The fact that a terrorist attack was quickly ruled out by the local authorities without waiting for the results of the investigation into the cause of the fire by the Forensic Institute in Zurich also needs to be clarified.
A legitimate question from a journalist from ‘Der Spiegel‘ about when the bar had last been inspected by the Valais authorities simply remained unanswered.
The Valais authorities may be acting defensively in order to prevent further abuse from coming to light.
“Typical Valais”
The ‘SonntagsZeitung’ newspaper has now reported on an August report by the BABS stating that Switzerland is completely unprepared for any such disaster and had neglected to take precautions.
After the earthquake in Turkey, doctors criticized Switzerland for not even being able to cope with an incident involving just 25 seriously-injured people.
However, the minister responsible at the time, Viola Amherd, herself from Valais, simply dismissed the concerns as ‘scaremongering.’
Now Switzerland is paying the price for its lack of preparedness. Healthcare is the responsibility of the cantons. The BABS report was critical, stating that there is a “lack of clear authority at the national level.”
“In general, the culture and competence in crisis management are rather weak,” the SonntagsZeitung newspaper also quoted.
Rega not approved
There will probably also be a rude awakening when it comes to reviewing how the rescuers coordinated flights in Valais. Ultimately, Valais did not want Rega, which operates nationwide, to be active in the canton and relied almost exclusively on its own Air Zermatt and its subsidiary Air-Glaciers.
However, these companies were unable to meet the legal requirements for rescue times, as the Swiss Air Rescue Service Rega had argued in its appeal against the negative decision on a service contract.
When, how, and where the ambulance flights in Crans-Montana took place and how they could have been optimized must now be analysed.
Expensive healthcare system
All in all, Switzerland seems extremely overwhelmed by a fire in a bar, which could actually happen anywhere in any week.
If a terrorist attack or a disaster in a soccer stadium with 200 or 300 seriously injured people were to occur in Switzerland, the country would probably overwhelmingly reach its limits once and for all.
Yet Switzerland, a wealthy country, has the most expensive healthcare system in the world after the US. However, it is clearly not well equipped to deal with emergencies such as the one in Crans-Montana.
Thomas Schinecker, CEO of the Basel-based pharmaceutical giant Roche, recently stated that only half of the drugs available as standard in Germany are available in Switzerland, which is likely to have come as a shock to many Swiss people.
Narrow-mindedness of cantons
In addition to general grievances in Valais, the inferno has once again opened our eyes to the healthcare system, for which the cantons are solely responsible.
The Swiss turned up their noses when dozens of people died in a nightclub fire in North Macedonia a few months ago, where seriously-injured people had to be transferred to other countries, even though North Macedonia has the cheapest healthcare system in all of Europe.
But North Macedonia is, figuratively speaking, right in Crans-Montana.
04.01.2026/kut./ena.
