SH0CKING TESTIMONY: “I Watched People Die” — The Words No 19-Year-Old Should Ever Have to Say
“I saw people die. Honestly, it was overwhelming — something I still can’t process.”
“I didn’t sleep for a single second. Every time I closed my eyes, it all came back.”
“I saw people completely burned. I saw crowds pushing, falling down the stairs in panic. I know some died inside because they couldn’t get out.”
Nathan is just 19 years old.
On New Year’s Eve, while hell erupted inside the bar, he was standing outside — powerless, watching everything unfold.
While many of us were raising glasses, laughing, and making plans for the year ahead, Nathan was watching lives fade in front of his eyes. People trapped. People running with nowhere to go. People who never made it out.
Some images never disappear.
Some nights don’t end when morning comes.
And some survivors continue to burn on the inside long after the flames are gone.
Nathan is alive.
But he carries the weight of those who escaped — and of those who never did.
As we scroll past these words with a single swipe, we should remember that behind every tragedy are real faces, real voices, and dreams abruptly cut short.
And teenagers who should never know what it means to say, “I watched people die.”
Crans-Montana tragedy: separate investigations and serious charges against the Morettis
Two days ago, Swiss authorities questioned Jacques and Jessica Moretti in two separate hearings, as required in particularly sensitive cases. The couple, owners of Le Constellation in Crans-Montana, are now under investigation for multiple counts of involuntary manslaughter, arson, and negligent injury following the devastating New Year’s Eve fire that turned a night of celebration into disaster. Jacques has been arrested, while Jessica has been placed under house arrest.
Jacques described the moments immediately after the fire erupted, recounting his desperate attempts to save Cyane Panine, the 24-year-old waitress who died in the flames.
“I tried to resuscitate her for more than an hour,” he said, adding, “I raised her boyfriend like my own son. We tried together until the rescuers arrived and told us it was too late.”
Jessica, meanwhile, conveyed the drama of those chaotic moments, recalling an evening that had seemed calm at first.
“The night had begun without any warning signs,” she said, with only a few customers present until around 1 a.m., and no hint of the disaster to come.
According to the couple’s account, the fire started during the service of sparklers — small decorative candles placed on bottles to make the evening more spectacular. The young woman seen in videos, standing on a colleague’s shoulders while holding a bottle and a sparkler, was not a customer but one of the club’s waitresses.
This detail radically changed the perspective on the incident, highlighting the risks linked to certain practices at the venue, which had already been flagged in the past by authorities. Jessica reportedly explained:
“It wasn’t something we always did. It wasn’t the first time, but I never stopped it — and I never ordered it either.”
She also described how sparks from the sparklers reached the soundproofing panels on the ceiling, causing the flames to spread rapidly.
“I sensed a movement in the crowd, and immediately afterward I saw an orange light in the corner of the bar.”
Within minutes, the situation spiraled out of control. The venue was ordered to evacuate, firefighters were called, and her husband received an emergency message:
“There’s a fire at Constel, come immediately!”
Jessica described what happened as “the tragedy of my life,” reflecting on the irreversible trauma caused by an event that began as a celebration and ended in catastrophe — with the girl in the helmet at the center of an episode destined to mark Crans-Montana forever.
