Le Constellation fire survivor attends owner’s court hearing

Melanie, who suffered burns to 40% of her body in the New Year’s fire at the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, has appeared in public for the first time in ten months. On Tuesday she attended the court hearing in the case of the bar’s owner, Jacques Moretti, Bild reports.

Ten months after the tragedy

Melanie’s life is now divided into “before” and “after” the fire. Her body and face were badly burned, and the past months have been defined by skin grafts, dressing changes, compression garments, pain, and a struggle with depression and trauma. She spent two months away from her two-year-old daughter.

She had to learn to walk again: first 150 steps a day, later 4,000. Putting on a T-shirt, picking something up off the floor or climbing a flight of stairs is trivial for a healthy person, but for Melanie every such action is a victory over herself. In the spring she summed up her journey in a few words: “I’m Melanie. I’m alive.” She escaped the burning bar at the last moment. “I saw death. Very close,” she said later.

“We’re all in the same boat”

Melanie did not come to the hearing for herself. “I’m not here for myself, but for those who died and their families. We have to make ourselves heard and be here all together. We’re all in the same boat,” she told Blick.

Many relatives of the victims came to court with her, along with others who are still recovering from their injuries. All of them want answers. “We’re here for our children. We won’t give up,” said Astrid Panin, whose daughter died in the fire.

A narrow staircase and the toll of the fire

The main topic of the hearing was the bar’s renovation. Moretti admitted responsibility for narrowing the staircase leading out of the basement. According to him, he decided to make the staircase narrower, but its dimensions met the legal requirements, which he had researched online.

According to investigators, narrowing this escape route made it harder to get out of the bar. The report states that 34 of the 41 victims were found at the foot of the staircase. The fire at Le Constellation broke out on New Year’s Eve in Crans-Montana. About forty people died and more than a hundred were injured.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz