Survivors of Swiss nightclub inferno face years of plastic surgery as

An Italian woman who suffered horrific burns to her hands and face following the devastating Swiss bar inferno on New Year’s Eve faces years of treatment – but she said it is her ‘soul’ that will need even longer to heal.

Eleonora Palmieri, 29, had only just arrived at Le Constellation nightclub in Crans-Montana with her boyfriend when she was pushed back into the room by partygoers surging past her in an attempt to escape the enveloping flames.

Her boyfriend was pushed by the heaving crowd towards the exit, but she found herself suddenly trapped inside the very room where the blaze was raging.

Speaking to The Times, Eleonora recalled how the room had become intensely dark and thick with smoke, making it hard for anyone to breathe.

‘Then came the light — a tongue of fire that raced up the stairs towards me frighteningly fast, a moment of pure terror in which all my senses were overwhelmed by the heat,’ she said.

Out of instinct, she raised her hands and arms up to her face, leaving her with deep burns around her left eye, cheek and lips, as well as across her nose and both hands, as well as other areas of her body.

Forty people lost their lives during the inferno on January 1, while 116 were wounded, many with life-altering injuries. Some survivors were left so badly burned that their own families could only identify them through their fingernails.

Palmieri was one of 12 people airlifted to Milan’s Niguarda hospital in the aftermath of the fire and was finally discharged on Thursday.

Eleonora Palmieri, 29, suffered horrific burns to her hands and face following the devastating Swiss bar inferno on New Year’s Eve – but she said it is her ‘soul’ that will need longer to heal

Palmieri was left with deep burns around her left eye, cheek and lips, as well as across her nose and both hands, as well as other areas of her body

A photograph of Palmieri before the nightclub tragedy, which left her with deep burns

The aspiring vet, whose career ambitions now hang in the balance after the injuries she sustained, was able to limit the damage done to her body through her medical knowledge.

In the crucial minutes after she came out of the nightclub, she asked her friends to carefully cut off her tights to prevent them from sticking to her skin – a move that likely spared her from further injuries.

Her thoughts now are with the victims and their families – as well as the ‘warriors’ like her who face a long path to recovery.

But the burns, she said, will heal in time. It is the emotional impact that she believes will take far longer to come to terms with, but she remains determined.

‘The burns will mark your skin but it’s the soul that needs more time to heal,’ she said. ‘We must not let that night define the rest of our lives.’

Palmieri shared her experience as it emerged on Thursday that footage from 250 municipal surveillance cameras in the area around the bar was ‘mistakenly erased’, Le Dauphine reported.

According to the Crans-Montana municipal police commissioner, the footage between December 31st up to midnight, and from January 1st after 6am, had been deleted.

Footage around the time of the fire, which broke out at 1.30am, has been preserved but investigators had wanted access to what had happened before and afterwards.

A dramatic video captured the moment the ceiling of the Swiss nightclub caught fire

Blunder that turned Swiss inferno bar into a death trap: Chair wedged against emergency exit where victims were trapped as owners blame young staff

‘The misunderstanding stems from the fact that the request for additional footage from the prosecutor’s office only arrived on January 15,’ Il Giornale d’Italia reported.

The latest revelation comes as newly-released CCTV footage from the nightclub shows a chair wedged against an emergency exit and employees using pool cues to prop up insulation foam before the tragedy occurred.

The footage features the owners of the bar, Jacques Moretti, 49, and his wife Jessica Moretti, 40, who blamed their young staff for causing the fire and blocking an escape exit.

A video released by channel France 2 appears to show a staff member at the nightclub pushing drooping insulation panels on the ceiling back into place using pool cues and paper towels, about two weeks before the fire.

In one clip, employee Gaëtan Thomas-Gilbert takes a video of this, sending it to Jaques Moretti, who replies: ‘Yeah, that looks OK. Take the others off, please.’

Another photo from minutes before the blaze shows a chair propped against an emergency exit, appearing to block the way. Three dead bodies were found in front of it, according to Bild.

Jaques and Jessica Moretti have been charged by Swiss prosecutors with negligent homicide, negligent bodily harm, and negligent arson.

The Morettis are being questioned by prosecutors constantly, and leaked interview records point to them saying, ‘It’s not us, it’s the others’, Le Parisien reported on Tuesday.

High quality photographs show the very first moments of the Swiss Constellation Bar fire in Crans-Montana, where dozens died on New Year’s Eve

Cyane Panine, 24, was killed in the blaze, with footage showing her sitting on a colleague’s shoulders holding two champagne bottles fitted with sparklers

Teenage victim of Swiss bar inferno wakes from coma weeks on from blaze that killed 40 – and says she can’t escape the nightmares

Their defence strategy during some 20 hours of interrogation by three prosecutors was, in particular, to blame waitress Cyane Panine, 24, for getting on the shoulders of a colleague while brandishing two champagne bottles with lit sparklers inside.

Cyane, who died in the fire, was wearing a promotional crash helmet and did not see the pyrotechnics lighting up the bar’s basement ceiling, which was covered in highly flammable foam.

Referring to the champagne sparklers stunt, Jacques Moretti told the enquiry that it was ‘Cyane’s show’.

‘I didn’t forbid her from doing that,’ he told prosecutors, adding: ‘I didn’t make her pay attention to safety instructions. We didn’t see the danger. Cyane liked doing that – it was a show, she liked to be part of the show.’

Jessica Moretti, who was at the same hearing on January 20, said: ‘Cyane liked to deliver these bottles – she did it of her own accord.

‘If I had thought there was the slightest risk, I would have forbidden it. In ten years of running the business, I never thought there could be any danger.’

Cyane’s family are amongst those who have vehemently denied the Moretti’s claims, and they are supported by witnesses who survived the blaze.

They say it was Jessica Moretti who sent Cyane out with the bottles and encouraged her to perform the stunt using a helmet provided by Dom Perignon.

‘Owner of Swiss nightclub FILMED waitress unwittingly spark deadly inferno – but was one of the first to escape’

Regarding fire safety, Jacques Moretti said: ‘There was no training, but employees were told what steps to take in case of fire when they were shown around the premises.

‘Evacuate the customers, raise the alarm, and call the fire department,’ he said, adding: ‘And of course, if they had time, use the fire extinguishers to put out the fire.’

When told that one employee, referred to only as L, had told the enquiry that he had no idea where the extinguishers were kept, Jacques Moretti replied: ‘The staff has several shifts, and maybe I forgot to give this information to L, but it was going to be passed on at some point. Maybe I forgot.’

Both Morettis also blamed an unidentified staff member for locking an escape door in the basement.

‘The door was always open,’ Jessica Moretti told the enquiry. ‘There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t wonder why that door was closed that night. We always said that the door was always open, and it was taken for granted.’

In turn, Jacques Moretti said: ‘After the tragedy, we learned that an employee delivered ice cubes to the Constellation and, without understanding why, closed the latch at the top of the door.’

Jacques Moretti said he later sent a text message to this employee, saying: ‘You shouldn’t run away, you should stay here and take responsibility.’

When contacted by Le Parisien, the staff member concerned vehemently denied all wrongdoing, saying: ‘I didn’t close a door that was already locked.’

Regarding the inflammable foam – which was installed at Le Constellation during renovations in 2015 – Jacques Moretti said: ‘The fire chief and the fire captain approved it.’