Swiss local authorities on Tuesday admitted that no safety inspections were carried out since 2019 at the bar where a deadly fire killed 40 people and injured 119 during New Year’s Eve celebrations, saying, “we bitterly regret this.
“The blaze broke out in the early hours of January 1 at the crowded Le Constellation bar in the Alpine ski resort of Crans-Montana.“Periodic inspections were not conducted between 2020 and 2025. We bitterly regret this,” Mayor Nicolas Feraud told a press conference, five days after the disaster.“We are profoundly sorry. We did not have an indication that the checks had not been done,” Feraud added, referring to the absence of fire safety inspections over the past five years.The mayor said the sound-proof foam used in the bar was considered acceptable at the time. Prosecutors, however, believe the fire spread rapidly after sparkling candles ignited the ceiling of the bar’s basement.Following the tragedy, all sparkling candles have now been banned inside venues, the mayor declared.Authorities confirmed on Sunday that all 40 victims who died had been identified, the youngest aged 14.
The injured include 68 Swiss citizens, 21 French nationals, 10 Italians, four Serbs, two Poles, and one person each from Australia, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Portugal and the Republic of Congo. There were also four dual nationals, AP reported.Police said 83 people remain hospitalised, without providing further details. The severity of the burns made identification difficult, requiring families to provide DNA samples. Earlier on Monday, Italian authorities repatriated the bodies of five victims from Sion airport. Swiss police pallbearers carried the coffins past firefighters and soldiers to an Italian Air Force cargo plane, as mourners embraced before the flight departed.Swiss prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into the bar’s managers, who are suspected of involuntary homicide, involuntary bodily harm and involuntarily causing a fire, according to the Valais region’s chief prosecutor.The Municipality of Crans-Montana in a statement said that it had reviewed all documents submitted to the Wallis canton public prosecutor’s office following the deadly fire. It said that the files outlined “administrative procedures relating to the establishment’s compliance.” The municipality acknowledged that while more than 1,400 fire inspections were conducted across the municipality in 2025 alone, the local council “deeply regrets discovering that this establishment had not undergone periodic inspections between 2020 and 2025.” “The Municipality of Crans-Montana remains fully committed to supporting the victims of this tragedy and their families and loved ones, who are constantly in its thoughts,” the statement said.“It will continue to do everything in its power to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again,” it added.(With inputs from agencies)
