Hero of Swiss New Year membership hearth dashed out and in of blaze to save lots of lives in ‘struggle scene’
Ferdinand Du Beaudiez, 19, was partying inside the Les Constellation bar with six loved ones, including his brother, when the blaze broke out at around 1.30am on New Year’s Eve
A student has bravely recounted how he repeatedly dashed in and out of the blazing Les Constellation bar in a selfless attempt to save lives.
Ferdinand Du Beaudiez, 19, was enjoying a night out with six loved ones, including his brother, who is currently in a coma, and his girlfriend, when the fire erupted around 1.30am on New Year’s Eve.
Returning to the scene of the tragedy for the first time, he gave an extraordinary account of the moment the fire ignited. He also described his futile attempts to extinguish the flames with water, likening the scenes to a war-zone.
Ferdinand, who is studying finance and economics at Munich University, said: “I saw someone order these champagne bottles and I saw the waitresses take the bottles on their shoulders…I saw the roof take fire and I went under the bar.
“I found some water in the mini fridge. At the moment I took the water, but the fire already spread on the whole roof. I threw some water, but it didn’t help anything.
“I went back down, I took my girlfriend’s arm and I screamed to everyone ‘get out’. I took my girlfriend as hard as I could up the stairs. There were so many people in the stairs that I lost her arm.
“I fell on the ground. I could reach the top of the stairs and I fell on my stomach.
“My first reflex was to cover my face with my arms and I closed my eyes. At this moment I suppose someone opened the front. This led to lots of air getting inside, which provided some air to the fire. And the fire turned into a fireball.
“I felt this fireball over my head, slightly burned my neck. At this moment the fire took all the breathable air and I couldn’t breathe anymore.”
“So in a last hope I took the foot of the table and grabbed myself out. At this moment I couldn’t find anyone. I got out near the cinema. I couldn’t find anyone.”
Ferdinand, who hails from Paris, described his next actions: “I went back inside. I found someone, I suppose, I hope he was just unconscious. But my prayers are that he’s still alive. I grabbed him in the stairs and I took him out.
“Firemen, policemen, firemen took him. And I still couldn’t find anyone. I went back inside but I couldn’t breathe anymore.
“There was too much smoke and I couldn’t breathe. So I went back out. I found a friend of mine who was really burned. He asked me, where is your girlfriend?”My girlfriend started rushing around. I found my girlfriend completely in shock.
“She was completely shocked. She told me my brother and his friends were near the bank over there. So I took both of them and joined my brother and his friends. They were all in shock, all very severely burned.
“It was terrifying. It felt like a war scene. I saw people, burned people on the ground.”
Recounting his experience of re-entering the blazing bar, he said: “One time I found someone laying in the stairs. This person was completely burned. Clothes were burned. I couldn’t recognise if it was a woman or a man.”
“I could only see teeth. I grabbed this person who was really heavy….This was the first time. The second time I went back in, what I felt is that there was more smoke.”
Ferdinand said he is now praying for his brother, who remains in hospital in a coma.
Meanwhile Swiss authorities are investigating what sparked the deadly blaze at Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, which claimed approximately 40 lives and left another 115 people wounded during the New Year’s celebration.
Mourners have left candles and flowers in an impromptu memorial near the Constellation bar at the ski resort of Crans-Montana. Hundreds of others prayed for the victims at the nearby Church of Montana-Station
The Crans-Montana resort is best known as an international ski and golf venue. It is less than three miles from Sierre, Switzerland, where 28 people, including many children, were killed when a bus from Belgium crashed inside a Swiss tunnel in 2012.
The blaze broke out around 1.30am on Thursday. Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV they were inside the bar when they saw a male bartender lifting a female bartender on his shoulders as she held a lit candle in a bottle. The flames spread, collapsing the wooden ceiling, they told the broadcaster.
People frantically tried to escape from the basement nightclub up a narrow flight of stairs and through a narrow door, causing a crowd surge, one of the women said.
A young man at the scene said people smashed windows to escape the fire, some gravely injured, reported BFMTV. He said he saw about 20 people scrambling to get out of the smoke and flames, likening what happened to a horror movie.
While officials said on Thursday it was too early to determine the fire’s cause, investigators have already ruled out the possibility of an attack.
Work is under way to identify the dead and inform their families, according to Valais Canton police commander Frederic Gisler.
