“I was furious because of these serious errors.” Swiss official, about the controls of the authorities at the bar consumed by the fire
Flowers and candles lit in memory of the victims of the fire that broke out on New Year's Eve in the club in Switzerland. Photo: MAXIME SCHMID / AFP / Profimedia
The leader of the Swiss canton of Valais, Mathias Reynard, denounced on Saturday that the specialized authorities did not inspect for six years the bar in the resort of Crans-Montana where on New Year's Eve there was a fire in which 40 people died and 116 others were injured, writes Reuters.
The mayor of the Crans-Montana resort had claimed this week that the Le Constellation bar had not been inspected since 2019, and Mathias Reynard expressed his astonishment in an interview with a local publication.
“I was angry, obviously, because of these serious errors. And I think it's normal to be angry, but we have to let justice take its course,” Reynard told Le Temps publication, Agerpres writes, citing Reuters.
This week, the head of security in the canton of Valais said the anti-noise foam in the basement of the Le Constellation bar, which caused the fire on New Year's Eve, should have been subject to checks under the law.
In recent days, calls for bringing the perpetrators to justice have increased in Switzerland.
The owners of the Le Constellation bar were heard on Friday as part of the criminal investigation opened against them for possible wrongdoing, and at the end of the interrogation Jacques Moretti, one of the two owners, the other being his wife, was placed in preventive detention.
At the end of the interrogation, Jacques Moretti was placed in preventive detention, to prevent any attempt to escape. Moretti, who was convicted in a pimping case in 2008, and his wife are being investigated for “culpable homicide, culpable bodily harm and culpable arson.”
According to the preliminary data of the investigation, the tragedy was caused by fireworks mounted on the corks of champagne bottles. Ignited and raised by the young people towards the ceiling of the bar, they came into contact with the soundproofing foam in the ceiling of the room and thus the fire started which quickly engulfed the whole bar.
68 seconds. Reenactment of the tragedy in Switzerland / Big problems with the evacuation of the bar
