Swiss bar managers face probe over fatal fire
CRANS-MONTANA, SWITZERLAND—Swiss authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the managers of the bar where a fire at a New Year’s party left 40 people dead, authorities said on Saturday.
The two are suspected of involuntary homicide, involuntary bodily harm and involuntarily causing a fire, the Valais region’s chief prosecutor, Beatrice Pilloud, told reporters. She said the investigation was opened on Friday night and that it would help “explore all the leads.” The announcement of the investigation did not name the managers.
More than 100 other people were injured in the blaze that broke out around 1:30 a.m. on Thursday at Le Constellation bar in the Alpine resort town of Crans-Montana. Police have said many were in their teens to mid-20s.
Safety measures
The process of identifying the dead and injured continued on Saturday, leading to an agonizing wait for relatives.
Investigators said on Friday they believe sparkling candles atop Champagne bottles ignited the fire when they came too close to the ceiling of the crowded bar.
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 also would look at other safety measures on the premises, including fire extinguishers and escape routes.
‘Someone made a mistake’
The Valais region’s top security official, Stéphane Ganzer, told SRF public radio on 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.
Asked whether the tragedy could have been avoided, Swiss Justice Minister Beat Jans replied that officials could not yet answer and “we know that the world needs an answer on this question.”
Identification
On Saturday, regional police said the bodies of four victims—a boy and a girl, both 16, an 18-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman, all of them Swiss—had been identified and handed over to their families.
Several injured people still haven’t been identified.
Laetitia Brodard, whose 16-year-old son, Arthur, went to Le Constellation to celebrate the New Year, held out hope that he might be one of them.
“I’m looking everywhere. The body of my son is somewhere,” Brodard told reporters Friday evening. “I want to know where my child is and be by his side. Wherever that may be, be it in the intensive care unit or the morgue.”
She told BFM TV that “we, parents, are starting to get tired … and anger is starting to rise.”
“It’s a wait that destroys people’s stability,” said Elvira Venturella, an Italian psychologist working with the families.
