Oscar from Valais said the day after the devastating fire: “Now I know that I can celebrate my second birthday today.” In an interview with the German “Bild” he says that he wanted to celebrate with friends at “Le Constellation”. But the bouncer turned them away at 1:15 a.m. because of overcrowding. They had come to the restaurant the evening before.
He and a friend then tried to get through a secret side entrance. “Not everyone knows the code.” However, his colleague couldn’t think of the combination of numbers. “That saved our lives.”
Just fifteen minutes after Oscar and his friend were turned away from the entrance, a devastating fire broke out in the restaurant. “At first I only saw thick clouds, I had no idea that smoke could be so thick,” he remembers. Then he saw people running out with extensive burns.
“The only door is narrow; no two people can fit through it at the same time,” he says. Security prevented guests from breaking windows. “Probably so that the oxygen doesn’t fuel the fire even further.” He then fled with his friends. Looking back, Oscar says: “I should have helped, but I was panicking.”
He says that at Le Constellation it was common practice to present champagne or large bottles with sparklers spraying for show effect. (jar)