![\"First](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/OuDCiu36rOClH3E3HUldA-AFjwc=\/1500x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(742x446:744x448):format(webp)\/emanuele-galeppini-010126-3f20f60686624b89bdadddd7a907c88d.jpg\")
<\/p>\nItalian golfer, Emanuele Galeppini, 17, was among the victims of the fatal fire that broke out at a bar in a Swiss ski resort during the early hours of New Year\u2019s Day<\/p>\n
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The first victim of\u00a0the deadly bar fire\u00a0that killed at least 40 people at Switzerland\u2019s Crans-Montana ski resort has been identified as Italian teenage golfer, Emanuele Galeppini.<\/p>\n
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The Italian Golf Federation confirmed Galeppini\u2019s death in an\u00a0Instagram post, writing that the sports organization \u201cmourns the passing of Emanuele Galeppini, a young athlete who carried passion and authentic values with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cAt this time of great sorrow, our thoughts are with his family and all those who loved him,\u201d the translated post added. \u201cEmanuele, you will forever remain in our hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The organization added a black and white photo of Galeppini, writing across the image, \u201cCiao Emanuele,\u201d which translates to \u201cGoodbye Emanuele.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Galeppini was 17 years old, according to Italian news agency Ansa. PEOPLE has reached out to the Italian Golf Federation.<\/p>\n
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PEOPLE previously reported that several dozen people were presumed dead following the fire, which occurred during New Year\u2019s Eve celebrations at the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana.<\/p>\n
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The Cantonal Police of Valais then confirmed that around 40 had died in the blaze, which is believed to have caused an explosion, and approximately 115 people had been injured, per a translated news release<\/p>\n
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Emanuele Galeppini.Credit :\u00a0Federazione Italiana Golf\/Instagram<\/p>\n
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In a press conference on Jan. 2, officials said 40 people had died and a total of 119 were injured. Of those injured, 113 people have been identified and their nationalities include 71 Swiss, 14 French, 11 Italians, four Serbian, one Bosnian, one Dutch, one Polish, one Portuguese and one person from Luxembourg. Fourteen people\u2019s nationalities are unknown.<\/p>\n
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Pierre-Antoine Lengen, head of the Swiss Judicial Police. said identifying the bodies of the dead was the \u201cabsolute priority,\u201d and the process is continuing. \u201cNo mistakes can be permitted. We need to give the correct remains back to the families,\u201d he said, per the\u00a0BBC.<\/p>\n
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Five of the deceased victims have yet to be identified, according to\u00a0Sky News\u00a0and Ansa.<\/p>\n
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Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for\u00a0PEOPLE\u2019s free daily newsletter\u00a0to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Attorney General Beatrice Pilloud said officials believe that the fire started from sparklers being placed on bottles of champagne that were moved too close to the ceiling, and from that a blaze began \u201cquickly,\u201d per a translation. Pilloud said videos had been analyzed and several people had been interviewed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n St\u00e9phane Ganzer, head of the Canton of Valais\u2019 security department, told French show\u00a0RTL Matin\u00a0that \u201cbetween 80 and 100 people\u201d injured in the blaze are in \u201ccritical condition.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Jan. 1, Mathias Reynard, the region\u2019s council leader, said there were people with \u201csevere injuries and severe burns,\u201d noting that identifying the bodies of those who died will take time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Authorities are pictured at the scene after a fire broke out at a bar in the Swiss Alps on Jan. 1, 2026.MAXIME SCHMID \/ AFP via Getty<\/p>\n Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for\u00a0PEOPLE\u2019s free daily newsletter\u00a0to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pilloud added that officials do not have a suspect and have not made any arrests, while a member of a fire service said that the fire was an \u201caccident.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Switzerland\u2019s president, Guy Parmelin, said during the press conference that the tragedy is \u201ca drama of unknown scale,\u201d per a translation.<\/p>\n In a\u00a0post on X\u00a0earlier in the day, Parmelin shared, \u201cWhat was a moment of joy turned into a tragedy in Crans-Montana last night, felt across the country and beyond. The Federal Council has taken note of this with deep dismay. Its thoughts are with the victims, the injured and their families and it extends its deepest condolences.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Authorities are pictured at the scene after a fire broke out at a bar in the Swiss Alps on Jan. 1, 2026.MAXIME SCHMID \/ AFP via Getty<\/p>\n Laetitia Place, 17, was\u00a0among the survivors of the blaze, telling\u00a0Reuters\u00a0that she narrowly escaped.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe all saw really horrible things that no one should ever have to see,\u201d Place said of being caught in the crowd as hundreds rushed for narrow exits.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s the small door where everyone was pushing, and so we all fell, we were piled on top of each other, some people were burning, and some were dead next to us,\u201d she recounted. \u201cI was so scared \u2014 scared for myself, scared for my friends, scared for everyone inside.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Another survivor, Samuel Rapp,\u00a0recalled\u00a0escaping the bar amid \u201cpeople lying on the ground, probably dead. They had jackets over their faces.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThen I received videos where people were trying to get out, but they were trampling over each other, so it was hard to get out through the exit,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd there were people shouting, saying, \u201cHelp me. Please help us.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Italian golfer, Emanuele Galeppini, 17, was among the victims of the fatal fire that broke out at a bar in a Swiss ski resort during the early hours of New Year\u2019s Day The first victim of\u00a0the deadly bar fire\u00a0that killed at least 40 people at Switzerland\u2019s Crans-Montana ski resort has been identified as Italian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chua-phan-loai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsyz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsyz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsyz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsyz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsyz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsyz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76,"href":"https:\/\/newsyz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions\/76"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsyz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsyz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsyz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsyz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Police](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/lF8_FiJ4uODFpM8yofRBLVrUa6U=\/4000x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(761x425:763x427):format(webp)\/Le-Constellation-Crans-Montana-ambulance-2025-010126-b93baed7e54e4d5fb279387d8056bb37.jpg\")
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