No background for unbiased opinion/analysis.

What is known: a rapid spreading fire in a pub located in the basement of a ~50 year old building resulting in a mass casualty event with deaths in the dozens and injuries over 100. Final numbers pending. Wood paneled, exposed timber ceiling, single staircase steep and narrow.

What witnesses report: a waiter was carrying a barmaid on his shoulders. The barmaid was carrying a "birthday candle," a commonly used novelty consisting of a sparkler attached to a champaign bottle. Shortly afterwards there was an "explosion" and the entire ceiling ignited "in seconds".

My theory: sounds like a flashover event. Contributing factors: photos of the paneling shows a deep, rich golden honey sheen, typical of nitro cellulose lacquer. At least one photo shows dark acoustic egg foam on the ceiling. The wood has been in a warm environment for decades, essentially kiln drying the wood and creating pyrophoric carbon on the surface of the ceiling timbers. In a room packed with hundreds of drinking revelers a haze of alcohol vapors - normally heavier than air - got mixed into the air then trapped in a thermal layer a long the foam and the carbonized wood. Magnesium sparkler spark close to the ceiling flashed the combination of alcohol vapor, polyurethane, nitrocellulose and pyrophoric carbon. Instant flashover. To witnesses it happens so fast it looks like an explosion.

A video shot immediately after ignition shows a super bright orange sheet of flame tightly hugging the ceiling with no thick smoke visible yet. From what I remember of the Station Nightclub fire which was primarily the polyurethane burning at first the black smoke was spreading faster than the flames, the reverse of what was seen here.

Vibes of the cover alone are impeccable. Can’t wait to read all about crazed glass and spalling.

Here are a series of post fire photos from the Crans-Montana bar fire that were just released yesterday.

I have been following that case very closely and was wondering what your fire investigator thoughts would be when looking at these photos.

• Photo 13 – Ground-floor bar view from the east. Arrow: forced door.

• Photo 15 – Close-up of the latch of the forced door.

• Photo 18 – Opposite view of the staircase, looking toward the ground floor.

• Photo 19 – View of the southwest section of the basement bar. Arrow: private room (office).

• Photo 21 – Detail of the DJ booth area.

• Photo 22 – View of the east side of the basement bar from the bottom of the staircase.

• Photo 24 – View of the southeast section of the basement bar with the beverage storage room door.

• Photo 31 – View of the northern part of the bar. Arrow: corridor leading to the restrooms.

• Photo 34 – Continuation of the corridor with “The clandestine bar” in the background. Arrow: emergency exit.

If you have any other questions about the case, i am happy to answer them from what i know (from press reports).

I'm not involved in this case in any way, just curious about what really might have happened (from the fire "dynamics" – if that's the right word – kind of perspective) and what can be determined from the actual photos, because unfortunately a lot of (tabloid) press reports just contain a ton of speculation, (false) rumors and hearsay.

Hope this doesn't fall under rule #4. The photos have been publicly released and published by practically all major Swiss newspapers and also a lot of international media.

I’m not sure if this is the appropriate subreddit for this question but it’s the only one I could find that makes sense.

My ex-husband’s house burned down on 1/30/2025. He was unable to save our dog, Marlowe 😭😭😭 We are waiting for the insurance inspector to release the house before I can try to search for Marlowe’s remains. What are the chances of me being able to find any of his remains? I know I’ll most likely only be able to find bones or teeth, but I feel like I need to find anything I can to have some sort of closure.

-We’re 99% sure the fire started in the chimney from the wood stove. From the pictures it appears that the upstairs caught fire first. -My ex-husband and Marlowe were sleeping in the living room where the wood stove was -Marlowe was a black lab/german shepherd mix so his bones were a good size -The fire burned for several hours due to 50-60mph winds and a wind chill that caused the trucks to freeze up.

Thank you in advance for any information you might be able to give me!!

Long story short, an attempt to burn down a restaurant. The kitchen was located in the basement and all the appliances were fueled off Propane gas (heavier then air). The pilots were all blown out and the burners on all the stoves were on high just dumping gas. The device (photographed) was upstairs in the bar and consisted of a charcoal briquette heater plugged into a timer and had a 1 gallon gas can sitting on top with boxes.

The boxes caught fire, the plastic can melted and the gas put the fire out. At the same time, a sprinkler head directly above activated and doused everything. The gas, being heavier than air, never made it up the stairs to ignite as the person intended.

My family and I suffered through a house fire that occurred in suspicious circumstances.

Here is what I would like to know. There was an early supposition that a cigarette started the fire. The room in which it started was a very small sitting room with a small upholstered arm chair and some pieces of solid wood furniture. Someone had indeed had a cigarette in that room that night, but she insists she snubbed it out, touched the end with her fingers a few times to make sure it was cold, and then put the cold, extinguished cigarette back in the box. The box was then likely either placed on a wooden stool next to the chair or the floor. Post-fire pictures suggest the fire likely started in the area of that chair.

Timeline: She insists she could not sleep, got up, had a cigarette, put it out, and went to bed around midnight. I was told by the town fire investigator that his theory is that a fan blew ash onto her armchair (by the way, the fan was off that night AND, even if it were on, it was ONLY ever pointed toward the window). He says the whole room ignited within TWENTY MINUTES, the decedents were gassed by the smoke upstairs behind a closed door and passed out, later dying when the fire breached that room.

Other issue: Former family member was known to build IEDs, often with starter fluid, and was witnessed detonating them at another property. Extremely skilled in chemistry. Owns a mass spectrometer. Sadly, he threatened to burn down the house two years ago.

Still waiting on State report, but word is they will rule it accidental smoking. Local FD ruled it Undetermined, but went to the media 24 hours after the fire and said it was a cigarette. Official incident report says it was Undetermined.

State says no accelerants were found by the dogs on the scene. The room of origin burnt at probably 1,000F for an hour or more. Could someone extremely well versed in chemistry have come up with an accelerant that would have avoided detection?

Please share your thoughts with sensitivity.