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Swiss authorities admitted Tuesday that fire safety inspections had not been carried out for the past five years at a bar where 40 people died in a New Year blaze.
The bar owners, who are facing negligent manslaughter charges, said they were “overwhelmed with grief” and would not seek to “evade” their responsibilities.
The inferno at Le Constellation in the Alpine ski resort of Crans-Montana in Switzerland’s southwestern Wallis region left 116 people wounded, of whom 83 are still in various hospitals. Most of those killed were teenagers.
Prosecutors believe the fire started when people celebrating the New Year raised champagne bottles with sparklers attached, setting light to sound insulation foam on the ceiling in the bar’s basement section.

Crans-Montana’s mayor, Nicolas Feraud, revealed during a press conference that while fire safety inspections were carried out in 2016, 2018, and 2019, there were no periodic inspections conducted from 2020 to 2025. “We deeply regret this oversight,” he stated.

Relatives of the victims received the news “with dismay”, Romain Jordan, a lawyer representing several families, told Agence France-Presse.
And “we would have liked to hear an apology”, he added.
By law, the municipal fire department should conduct annual inspections in establishments open to the public, Feraud said.

The municipal authorities have issued a statement asserting that the judicial system will assess how this lapse contributed to the tragic incident. “The municipality will accept full responsibility as adjudicated by the courts,” the statement affirmed.

“A venue once known for celebration has now become synonymous with horror and fear,” the statement added.

French couple Jacques and Jessica Moretti owned and managed Le Constellation, which was filled with young partygoers when the blaze erupted at around 1:30am on Thursday.
In their first public statement since charges were filed against them Saturday for manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence, the pair said they were “devastated and overwhelmed with grief”.
They pledged their “full cooperation” with the investigation, insisting: “We will under no circumstances attempt to evade these matters”.
“No words can adequately describe the tragedy that occurred that night at Le Constellation,” said the statement, published by their lawyers.

Photographs taken by the venue’s owners in 2015 reveal that soundproofing foam, which did not require a permit according to municipal guidelines, had been affixed to the ceiling since their renovation efforts.

Wallis canton’s chief prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud told French radio station RTL that the couple would be “interviewed fairly soon”.
The bar had a capacity limit of 100 people on the ground floor and 100 in the basement.

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A video filmed by a member of the public, screened Monday by Swiss broadcaster RTS, showed that the danger was known years ago.
“Watch out for the foam!”, a bar employee said during 2019 New Year’s Eve celebrations, as champagne bottles with sparklers were brought out.
“The security chiefs who inspected this bar (between 2015 and 2020) should probably have been more careful,” admitted Feraud, who ruled out resigning for the time being.
“I will carry this burden and the sorrow of all these families for the rest of my life,” he concluded, visibly shaken.
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