‘It could have been me’: Australian teen’s narrow miss as Swiss nightclub burned
Yaron Lavy missed the deadly nightclub inferno by sheer chance as Swiss authorities praise the actions of volunteers who helped people escape.
Crans-Montana: The teenagers who come to lay flowers know they are the lucky ones who were spared the blaze that brought death in the night to their friends.
One girl doubles over in grief as she lights a candle at the mound of flowers on the street corner near Le Constellation nightclub, where at least 40 people perished in the flames.
Yaron Lavy knows local teenagers who are yet to be accounted for.Credit: Fairfax
Here, in the Swiss resort town of Crans-Montana, parents walk with their weeping children to place flowers at the memorial to those who died in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
Yaron Lavy, 17, knows he could have been inside the club when the fire spread about 1.30am on Thursday, trapping young revellers in the basement bar.
“I was lucky – because of a glass of water,” he tells me.
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Lavy, whose family is from Melbourne and is now based in Crans-Montana, was on his way to Le Constellation with his friends but chose to stop at a nearby hotel for a glass of water. That decision may have saved his life. Divided on where to go and whether to stay out, his crew never made it to the popular nightclub, where he had been drinking just two nights earlier.
When Lavy saw a message telling him of the fire at Le Constellation, he tried to call friends he knew were at the club. None replied. He headed to the club.
“Straight away, I came here as fast as I could, even if I couldn’t do anything,” he says.
“I got to the front, and I just saw all these people, all the ambulances, all the fire trucks, and I was just traumatised. How could this happen on one of the best days of the year?”
There are conflicting accounts of the start of the fire, but most suggest it began at 1.30am and that emergency services were at the scene quickly. But it took hours for ambulance workers to help all of those on the street outside the club, and some witnesses report hearing screams until 4.30am.
Social media footage shows the Le Constellation nightclub ablaze.Credit: X/@tyroneking36852
