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Authorities in Crans-Montana have said the bar that caught fire in the Swiss ski resort on New Year’s Eve, killing 40 mainly young partygoers and injuring more than 100, had not been inspected by safety officers for the past five years.
“Periodic inspections were not conducted between 2020 and 2025. We bitterly regret this,” the mayor of the town, Nicolas Féraud, told a press conference in the town on Tuesday, five days after the disaster at Le Constellation bar.
Féraud said the council was not responsible for determining who was responsible for the blaze. “That will be the job of the investigators,” he said. But the municipality wanted to show “full transparency”. “We owe it to the victims and their families,” he added.
Authorities believe the fire in the crowded bar started in its basement party room after sparklers attached to champagne bottles were held too close to the ceiling, which images on social media suggest was clad with soundproofing foam.
Féraud said he had “no answer” as to why the bar, which was renovated in 2015, had not been inspected annually, as required by the town’s bylaws, but noted that a team of five safety officers was responsible for checking more than 10,000 buildings.
“We’re profoundly sorry, and I know how hard that will be for the families,” Féraud added. He said he and his fellow councillors would not be resigning because they were “elected by the people of Crans-Montana” and would not “jump ship now”.
The last of the 40 people who died in the fire – who included 21 Swiss nationals, nine French citizens including two with dual nationality, six Italians, and one person each from Belgium, Portugal, Romania and Turkey – were identified on Sunday.
Authorities have not yet released the names of the victims, although several have been publicly identified by their families. They were aged between 14 and 39, but were overwhelmingly young: 20 were minors, and the average age was 19.
Police said on Monday that all 116 people injured in the blaze, including 68 Swiss citizens, 21 French, 10 Italians, four Serbs and four dual nationals, had also been identified. Eighty-three people are still in hospital being treated for severe burns.
Féraud said the sound-proof foam used in Le Constellation had been considered acceptable at the time of the last inspection. Sparklers, known as “Bengal fountains”, had now been banned inside the resort’s venues, he added.
Authorities are investigating the bar’s owners, Jacques and Jessica Moretti, on suspicion of crimes including homicide by negligence. The mayor said the couple had not been arrested but a second establishment they owned had been closed.
The municipality said on Monday it had given investigators all documents relevant to the investigation and joined the criminal proceedings as a civil party. “This will allow [the town council] to actively contribute to establishing all the facts,” it said.
The bodies of the first foreign victims, five Italians, were repatriated on Monday. Crans-Montana will hold a memorial ceremony on Friday honouring the victims. The French government has said the president, Emmanuel Macron, will attend.
