FC Metz youth-teamer Tahirys Dos Santos (19) has spoken for the first time about the horrific fire in a Crans-Montana bar on New Year’s Eve, in which he sustained serious injuries.
Speaking to Paris Match and as reported by L’Équipe, Dos Santos relived his experience of the horrific scenes at the Constellation bar, which killed 41 and injured 115.
“We arrived at around 12:30-1:00am because Coline [Dos Santos’ girlfriend] needed the toilet. I was heading towards the first floor when I saw the fire. It all happened so quickly and I didn’t really think – I immediately went back in to fetch Coline and we ran to the stairs. After that, it’s all a blank.”
Dos Santos recalled that “I could hear lots of shouting. There was a stampede. I didn’t know if my friends were alive or dead. I called their names but there was no response”. He remembers one friend finding him and taking him to where the injured were: “Amandine – a student – appeared. She basically saved my life. She comforted me. I was immediately put in an ambulance. I could not feel my back.”
Dos Santos sustained burns to 30 percent of his body, including his back, the back of his head, arms, hands and face and was operated on once, while Coline came out of a coma only this week after undergoing three operations. The pair were reunited on 28 January and Dos Santos said that “when I saw her, it was like a great weight had been lifted”.
The versatile left-sided defender, lauded within the club for his positive attitude and leadership, had appeared in the first-team squad once this season, for a Coupe de France tie, without making it onto the pitch. A return to football is unsurprisingly not on the immediate agenda for Dos Santos, however: “I am alive, that’s the most important thing. Fitness will come later. I am not focussing too much on football for now, the most important thing is that I make a full recovery”.
