January 1st, 2026 - Switzerland's Burn Units Overwhelmed Following New Year's Fire

A bar fire in the Swiss resort town of Crans-Montana has resulted in a far greater number of severe burn victims than Switzerland’s burn units can accommodate. The fire has left approximately 50 people severely burned, overwhelming the capacity of the country’s burn centers in Zurich, Lausanne, and the national disaster center in Bern, according to Dr. Robert Larribau, the head of emergency care at Geneva’s University Hospital.

The scale of the emergency led authorities to seek assistance from neighboring countries. Dr. Larribau confirmed that officials in Bern were working with the European Union to identify hospitals in Germany, Italy, and France that could take in some of the victims. By Thursday, patient transfers to these countries had begun, and by Friday, France had announced that 11 victims would be hospitalized there.

The closest hospital to the fire in Sion, Switzerland, struggled to cope with the influx of patients, receiving around 60 individuals, according to Dr. Larribau. Additionally, the burn center in Lausanne, already operating above capacity, took in 22 patients, more than double its normal capacity. Meanwhile, 16 patients were sent to Zurich University Hospital, and eight others were transferred to a hospital in Bern.

Four critically burned patients, aged between 15 and 25, were taken to Geneva University Hospital, where two were placed in intensive care and needed to be moved for specialized treatment. Furthermore, three individuals who sustained fractures and other non-burn injuries in an explosion at the bar made their way independently to another Geneva hospital for treatment.

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster) - Amortize (verb, AM-er-tyze) - To amortize something, such as a mortgage, is to pay for it by making regular payments over a long period of time.

Example: If you apply extra payments directly to your loan balance as a principal reduction, your loan can be amortized sooner.

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