{"id":48324,"date":"2026-04-14T05:03:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T05:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/48324\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T05:03:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T05:03:39","slug":"swiss-mayor-says-unaware-no-safety-checks-at-bar-before-new-year-fire-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/48324\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss mayor says unaware no safety checks at bar before New Year fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"People<\/p>\n

\nPeople gather around a makeshift memorial to pay their respect by laying flowers, candles and messages near the Constellation bar in Crans-Montana on January 6, 2026, in honour of the victims of the fire that ripped through the venue in the luxury Alpine ski resort on New Year’s Eve.
\nPhoto: FABRICE COFFRINI \/ AFP\n<\/p>\n

Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas Feraud says he had not known that safety checks had not been carried out for six years at a Swiss ski resort bar where a fire killed 41 people<\/a> during New Year celebrations.<\/p>\n

Feraud was questioned for the first time by public prosecutors investigating the blaze that swept through Le Constellation bar in a disaster that shocked Switzerland.<\/p>\n

He had said the day after the fire on 1 January that safety inspections had not been carried out at the bar<\/a> in upscale Crans-Montana since 2019, despite a requirement for annual checks from local authorities.<\/p>\n

The mayor is one of nine people under criminal investigation over the tragedy, which left 115 people injured, many of them badly burned<\/a>, in addition to the dozens killed.<\/p>\n

Feraud’s lawyer Christian Delaloye said his client had not been informed about the lack of inspection “before January 2” and had provided his staff with the resources to carry out checks.<\/p>\n

The investigation aims to determine the exact circumstances of the fire, the owners’ compliance with regulations and the potential criminal responsibility of local authorities.<\/p>\n

Those under investigation include the bar’s French owners – husband and wife Jacques and Jessica Moretti<\/a> – who face charges of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence.<\/p>\n

Several of the plaintiffs’ lawyers said they were frustrated at a lack of clear explanations.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t get answers to the key question – why there were no inspections for six years,” said Alain Viscolo, one of the lawyers representing the civil parties, ahead of the hearing.<\/p>\n

“We were given information about the public safety system in Crans-Montana, but we end up with a whole plethora of people in charge who are ultimately responsible for very little,” he said.<\/p>\n

‘Negligence’<\/p>\n

“I can’t say I’m satisfied with the answers that have been given,” said lawyer Romain Jordan, who represents several victims’ families.<\/p>\n

“However, the reality is that we’re getting a closer look at the dynamics of negligence that led to this tragedy.”<\/p>\n

Prosecutors believe the fire started when champagne bottles with sparklers attached were raised too close to the ceiling in the bar’s basement level, igniting the sound-insulation foam.<\/p>\n

The Wallis public prosecutor’s office began a new round of hearings in Sion last week, summoning former and current local council officials for the first time.<\/p>\n

Last week, the former head of the Crans-Montana council’s fire safety department exercised his right to remain silent because, his lawyer told AFP, he did not yet have access to the case file.<\/p>\n

The deputy to the council’s former head of public safety and a current member of the public safety team were able to be questioned.<\/p>\n

A former town councillor is scheduled to be interviewed on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Co-owner Jacques Moretti was due to be questioned again last week but the hearing was postponed indefinitely on medical grounds.<\/p>\n

Following the fire, seriously wounded patients were airlifted to various hospitals and specialist burns units throughout Switzerland and Europe.<\/p>\n

The Federal Office for Civil Protection told AFP that as of Wednesday, 38 patients were still in hospitals and rehabilitation clinics in Switzerland and neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n

-AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People gather around a makeshift memorial to pay their respect by laying flowers, candles and messages near the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[3313,4823,1202,4824,4822,4820,4821,41,17],"class_list":["post-48324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-swiss","tag-switzerland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116401314682087768","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}