As Switzerland entered a period of national mourning on Friday, the authorities faced the grim task of identifying victims of a deadly fire on New Year’s Day, a painstaking process that the police have said could take days or even weeks.
Dr. Robert Larribau, who oversees emergency medical services at a hospital in Geneva, said in an interview on Friday that the severity of the burns and the fact that victims were not carrying identification documents had made identification difficult. About 50 people are believed to have been badly burned, he said.
“All this work needs to be done because the information is so terrible and sensitive that nothing can be told to the families unless we are 100 percent sure,” said Mathias Reynard, president of the government of the canton of Valais, where the fire occurred. He said that experts were using dental records and DNA samples to identify the victims.
A fast-moving fire tore through a bar in the Alpine town of Crans-Montana during a New Year’s celebration early Thursday, killing at least 40 people, including some from France and Italy, and injuring more than 100, including an Australian.
Regional burn units were soon overwhelmed.
Officials in Zurich said on Friday that 17 seriously injured patients, including four under the age of 18, were being treated at hospitals there that specialize in the treatment of severe burn injuries.
Five Italian patients were scheduled to be flown to hospitals in Italy on Friday, while other victims were being treated in France. Several Italian survivors were in such critical condition that they could not be transported “for the time being,” Fabio Ciciliano, the head of Italy’s civil protection agency, said in an interview with an Italian television outlet, Rai News, on Friday.
Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, arrived in Crans-Montana on Friday and laid flowers at a memorial for the victims. He told reporters that three of the injured had not yet been identified. He said that 13 Italians had been hospitalized, including several who had been transferred to Milan and that six Italians were unaccounted for. Mr. Tajani said that Italian forensic experts were available to help their Swiss counterparts in identifying the victims.
“From the dramatic images we’ve seen, something was missing, something went wrong, but it will be up to the judiciary to investigate and ascertain responsibility — it’s the first thing I asked the attorney general,” Mr. Tajani said. “Ascertaining the truth is fundamental, but first and foremost we want to save lives, and at the same time, we need to ascertain the responsibility of those who run the venue.”
Tahirys Dos Santos, a 19-year-old player for F.C. Metz, a French soccer team, was injured in the fire and was being treated in Stuttgart, Germany. “He’s suffering terribly,” said Christophe Hutteau, his agent, adding that the player had burns covering about 30 percent of his body. But, Mr. Hutteau said, the player’s “respiratory capacity” had improved.
Jenny Gross is a reporter for The Times covering breaking news and other topics.
The post Swiss Authorities Face the Grim Task of Identifying Fire Victims appeared first on New York Times.
