“Local authorities failed to carry out yearly safety inspections between 2020 and 2025 at the bar in the Swiss Alps that suffered a deadly fire last week,” reports The New York Times, fueling “ mounting accusations that lax oversight had set the stage for the disaster.”
“We bitterly regret this,” says the mayor of Crans-Montana, the ski resort town where the fire killed 40 people, disproportionately teenagers, and badly injured over 100 others during a New Year’s celebration. Mayor Féraud adds that “the justice system will determine the extent to which this failure influenced the chain of events leading to the tragedy.” Local fire regulations require yearly inspections in buildings that are open to the public or have heightened risks.
The New York Times reports that
The owners, a French couple named Jacques and Jessica Moretti, are under criminal investigation over suspicions that negligence played a role in the fire — a sudden burst of flames that engulfed the bar’s basement.
The Morettis have not responded to multiple requests for comment. In brief interviews with the Swiss media, they have denied wrongdoing and said they were cooperating with investigators.
The local authorities have also come under pressure over their enforcement of fire safety regulations.
Pictures on social media of extensive renovations when the bar opened in 2015, as well as witness accounts of its operations, suggest that hazards blamed for turning the bar into a death trap were long present.
Those include a basement ceiling covered in flammable foam, the indoor use of firework sparklers and a lack of accessible emergency exits that turned a narrow staircase into a choke point.
An exit door opened inward, not outward, which may have resulted in people being crushed against the closed door while trying to escape.
