Swiss officials can't explain why bar hadn't received fire safety inspection in 6 years ahead of deadly blaze
Posted on: Jan 06, 2026 18:01 IST | Posted by: Cbc
go off refuge inspections hadn't been carried come out for several years at the exclude where a go off that broke out at a New Year's party left 40 people dead and over 100 injured, local authorities said Tuesday.
Investigators have said they believe festive sparkling candles atop champagne bottles ignited the fire at Le Constellation in the resort town of Crans-Montana after they came too close to the ceiling. Authorities are looking into whether soundproofing material on the ceiling conformed with regulations and whether the candles were permitted for use in the bar.
Swiss authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the bar managers. The two are suspected of involuntary homicide, involuntary bodily harm and involuntarily causing a fire, according to the Valais region's chief prosecutor.
Regional authorities have said that safety inspections were the responsibility of the municipality. On Tuesday, the head of Crans-Montana's municipal government, Nicolas Féraud, said that there had been inspections of Le Constellation up to 2019.
But he told a news conference the local council discovered when consulting documents after the fire that "periodic checks were not carried out between 2020 and 2025."
"We regret this bitterly," he said, adding that it will be up to judicial authorities to determine what influence that may have had on the chain of events that led to the fire.
Police identify all 40 victims of Swiss bar fire
Féraud said he couldn't immediately explain why safety inspections hadn't been conducted for such a long time.
He said that, in September last year, an external expert had been asked to carry out a soundproofing analysis and had concluded that the bar complied with anti-noise rules, without making further remarks.
The severity of burns made it difficult to identify some victims of the fire that broke out at about 1:30 a.m. On New Year's Day, requiring families to supply authorities with DNA samples.
Investigators finished identifying the 40 dead on Sunday and said on Monday that they had identified all 116 people who were injured.
Féraud said reports from the inspections that were carried out mentioned a maximum capacity of 100 people on the bar's ground floor and 100 in its basement. It's unclear how many people were in Le Constellation when the blaze broke out and investigators have said that may never be known.
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