An ambulance is seen at the site of an explosion that ripped through the bar Le Constellation in Crans-Montana on January 1, 2026. MAXIME SCHMID / AFP As the world rang in the New Year with fireworks and celebrations, some emergency services were stretched thin as fires broke out in cities and communities, causing damage and, in some cases, deaths. Here are some of the fire incidents around the world that occurred this week.
A huge inferno gutted a 19th-century Amsterdam church on Thursday, as the Netherlands endured an unsettled New Year’s Eve with two dead from fireworks and “unprecedented” violence against police. The blaze broke out in the early hours at the Vondelkerk, a tourist attraction that has overlooked one of the city’s top parks since 1872. The 50-metre-high (164-foot) tower collapsed, and the roof was badly damaged, but the structure was expected to remain intact, authorities in Amsterdam said.
A fire ripped through a crowded bar in the luxury Swiss ski resort town of Crans-Montana as revellers rang in the New Year, killing and injuring several people, police said early Thursday. A police spokesman named the bar as Le Constellation, which has a capacity of 300 people and another 40 people on its terrace, according to the Crans-Montana website.
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