The French owner of the Swiss bar where 40 people died in a fire during new year celebrations has told investigators a service door had been locked from the inside.<\/p>\n
Jacques Moretti, co-owner of the Constellation bar in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana, was taken into custody on Friday, as prosecutors investigated the tragedy.<\/p>\n
Most of the 40 people who died were teenagers, and another 116 people were injured.<\/p>\n
Moretti told the Valais public prosecutor\u2019s office that he had found out about the locked door just after the deadly fire.<\/p>\n
When he arrived at the scene, he forced open the door, according to excerpts from police reports published by several French and Swiss media outlets confirmed to AFP by a source close to the case.<\/p>\n
Moretti said he had found several people lying behind the door after opening it.<\/p>\n
Initial findings suggest the fire was caused by sparklers coming into contact with soundproofing foam installed on the ceiling of the establishment\u2019s basement.<\/p>\n
Questions are also being raised regarding the presence and accessibility of fire extinguishers, and whether the bar\u2019s exits were in compliance with regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always add a sparkler candle when we serve a bottle of wine in the dining room,\u201d said his wife and co-owner, Jessica, who was released after Friday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n
Moretti told investigators he had carried out tests and the candles were not powerful enough to ignite the acoustic foam.<\/p>\n
He said he bought the foam in a DIY store and installed it himself during renovations carried out after buying the establishment in 2015.<\/p>\n
Regarding the presence of numerous underage kids in the bar at the time of the tragedy, Moretti said the establishment prohibited anyone under the age of 16 and that customers aged 16 to 18 had to be accompanied by an adult.<\/p>\n
He said he had given these \u201cinstructions\u201d to the security staff, but acknowledged that \u201cit is possible that there was a lapse in protocol\u201d.<\/p>\n
The couple is suspected of \u201cnegligent homicide, negligent bodily harm, and negligent arson\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The French owner of the Swiss bar where 40 people died in a fire during new year celebrations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-687863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115873720853878702","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}