Owners of ski bar where 40 died in fire on New Year’s Eve face homicide charges
The managers of the bar where a fire at a New Year’s Eve party left 40 people dead are under criminal investigation on charges including negligent homicide.
More than 100 people were also injured – many seriously – in the inferno that engulfed the Le Constellation bar in the Swiss Alpine resort town of Crans-Montana.
Police have identified the first four victims, with the bodies of two Swiss women aged 21 and 16 and two Swiss men aged 18 and 16 having been returned to their families.
The slow process of identifying the rest is ongoing, leaving the families of those missing facing an agonising wait for updates.
In an update on Saturday, police said they have opened an investigation into the bar owners.
The pair, Jacques Moretti and his wife Jessica, are suspected of negligent homicide, negligent bodily harm and causing fire by negligence.
They were interviewed by Swiss authorities on Friday.
The Times reported that the Morettis – who took over Le Constellation in 2015 – refurbished it themselves.
Mr Moretti told local newspaper Le Nouvelliste he spent six months transforming it into a vibrant night spot for the après-ski crowd during the upscale resort’s busy winter season.
He insisted they did not break any safety rules.
‘Everything was done according to the rules,’ the 49-year-old told a Swiss-French media outlet.
Investigators said Friday that they believe sparkling candles atop Champagne bottles ignited the fatal fire when they came too close to the ceiling of the crowded bar.
Many of the injured were in their teens to mid-20s, police said.
Authorities planned to look into whether sound-dampening material on the ceiling conformed with regulations and whether the candles were permitted for use in the bar.
Officials said they would also look at other safety measures on the premises, including fire extinguishers and escape routes.
The Valais region’s top security official, Stéphane Ganzer, told SRF public radio Saturday that ‘such a huge accident with a fire in Switzerland means that something didn’t work — maybe the material, maybe the organization on the spot’.
He added: ‘Something didn’t work and someone made a mistake, I am sure of that.’
Nicolas Féraud, who heads the Crans-Montana municipality, told RTS radio he was ‘convinced’ checks on the bar hadn’t been lax, the broadcaster reported.
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