LUTRY, Switzerland: Teammates of a 16-year-old soccer player Arthur Brodard were among the mourners on Thursday as Switzerland held funerals for some of the victims of the New Year bar fire in Crans-Montana that killed 40 people, most of them teenagers.
Brodard is one of seven members of Lutry Football Club who died in the fire, the club said. Five others are still fighting for their lives in hospitals.
Under light snowfall, hundreds walked through Lutry’s cobbled streets past a large drawing of Brodard and his younger brother to the church, black umbrellas in hand, filling every pew and spilling into the aisles and doorway.
His mother, Laetitia Brodard-Sitre, carried a white teddy bear and a single red rose — his team colors.
“I want to hug you so tightly that neither of us can breathe. I love you with all my heart, Arthur,” she said, addressing her son’s coffin after singing a song in his memory.
Other class and teammates also gave eulogies, describing him as attentive, sincere, kind and thoughtful.
CLUB PAYS TRIBUTE
At the start of the ceremony, a song called “One day in the wrong place” by France’s Calogero played with the lyrics: “And it’s because they were there/One day in the wrong place.”
Brodard had reserved a table with friends on New Year’s Eve at Le Constellation bar, his mother told Reuters last week.
Just over an hour before the blaze, he texted her “Happy New Year mum. I love you” and shared a disappearing video of them partying together, she said.
His photo, showing him with tousled brown hair carrying a Yorkshire Terrier “Lili,” appeared in newspapers around the world as she sought information on his whereabouts from morgues and hospitals.
He was identified as one of the victims on January 3.
“We will now join forces to fight together, to get our heads above water, regain the initiative, and finally even the score, ball in the center,” Lutry Football Club President Stephane Bise told the congregation.
Swiss authorities said the bar in the upscale ski resort of Crans-Montana had not had a mandatory inspection since 2019 and questions remain about safety standards.
Swiss prosecutors are investigating the owners and victims’ families have filed legal complaints. The owners’ lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Lutry ceremony was one of two back-to-back services for teenage fire victims at the same church.
Another joint funeral for 14- and 15-year-old sisters took place in Lausanne. Schools have mobilized mental health counsellors to support students and teachers.
Twenty-one of the dead were from Switzerland, seven from France, six from Italy, and there was a Swiss-French dual national and a French-British-Israeli national. The remaining four were Romanian, Turkish, Belgian and Portuguese.
