INHALATION BURNS
The managing director for the hospitals in the Wallis canton, Eric Bonvin, told AFP the patients brought in suffered not only burns but also fractures and symptoms of suffocation, likely caused in the panicked rush for the exit.
The burns, in several cases, were not only external, but also respiratory – inhalation burns that are “extremely complex and difficult” to treat, he said.
“They have to remain intubated until they recover and until their airway is stable and open enough again for them to breathe.”
Most of those cases were sent to other hospitals with specialised units, he said.
As authorities on Friday began moving bodies from the burned-out bar, locals described Crans-Montana as stunned.
“The atmosphere is heavy,” Dejan Bajic, a 56-year-old tourist from Geneva who has been coming to the resort since 1974, told AFP.
“It’s like a small village; everyone knows someone who knows someone who’s been affected,” he said.
Locals and tourists who witnessed the aftermath of the tragedy told AFP what they saw in the minutes and hours following the start of the blaze.
Edmond Cocquyt, a Belgian tourist, said he saw bodies “covered with a white sheet” and “young people, totally burned, who were still alive … screaming in pain”.
“We thought it was just a small fire — but when we got there, it was war,” Mathys, from the neighbouring village of Chermignon-d’en-Bas, said, declining to give his last name.
“That’s the only word I can use to describe it – the apocalypse.”