Five missing after fire in Swiss Alpine town

2026, August 21

Switzerland

This is a different Swiss fire from the Crans-Montana tragedy earlier this year.

🔥 What happened?

A major fire broke out after midnight in Thusis, a town in the Swiss canton of Graubünden (Grisons) in the eastern Swiss Alps. The fire consumed an entire building containing a restaurant and apartments.

5 people are currently missing

8 people were injured

2 of the injured are in serious condition

14 people managed to escape

Around 100 firefighters were deployed

The building was completely destroyed

The fire was so intense that the building's stairwell collapsed, making normal access impossible. Fire crews had to use a crane to open the roof to reach parts of the building.

🚒 Search for the missing

Rescue teams are continuing to search the remains of the building for the five missing people. Police and the public prosecutor's office have also opened an investigation into how the fire started. At this stage, the cause has not been established.

Thusis is in the Graubünden region, a mountainous part of eastern Switzerland that attracts many tourists and is surrounded by the Swiss Alps.

This is particularly worrying because Switzerland has already experienced the devastating Crans-Montana bar fire in January 2026, which killed 41 people and injured more than 100. That earlier disaster led to considerable scrutiny of fire-safety arrangements in Swiss public buildings.

The important distinction: the Thusis fire is a new incident on 21 August 2026; it is not connected to the January Crans-Montana fire based on information currently available.