Nearly three weeks on from a deadly New Year fire in a Swiss ski resort bar, many questions remain unanswered.
Here is an overview of the investigation into the blaze at Le Constellation bar in Crans- Montana, which killed 40 people, mostly teenagers, and injured another 116.
The bar is co-owned by French couple Jacques and Jessica Moretti, who were being questioned in Sion, Valais’ capital.
Safety standards
Valais public prosecutors believe the fire started in the early hours of New Year’s Day when revellers raised champagne bottles with sparklers attached too close to sound insulation foam on the bar basement ceiling.
The Crans-Montana local authorities triggered outrage when they revealed they had not conducted obligatory annual fire and safety inspections at the bar since 2019.
Without such inspections to fall back on, investigators are tasked with determining for themselves whether the bar, its fittings, fire safety equipment and emergency exits were all in order.
According to transcripts of public prosecutors’ first interview with Jacques Moretti on January 1st, the bar owner said there was an emergency exit in the basement.
He did not indicate, however, whether it was properly marked, accessible and open.
“It’s not possible to lock the emergency exit… You can’t close this door from the inside,” the Morettis’ lawyer Nicola Meier said.
“It has to be kept open all the time — and it was,” he told Geneva TV station Leman Bleu.
The other exit from the basement was the staircase leading up to the ground floor level. Witnesses said a crush on the staircase prevented many victims getting out.
Of the 40 killed, 34 were found “piled up at the bottom of the staircase”, according to an Italian police report based on information provided by Swiss counterparts.
Photos published by several media showed the staircase had been narrowed during renovations Moretti carried out after he bought the bar in 2015.
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As for fire extinguishers, Moretti said there were three in the basement.
Were they in working order and easily accessible? The firefighters questioned could not formally say whether they had been used.
Moretti told investigators it was “not impossible” that the ceiling foam — bought from a DIY store — had caught fire.
But he insisted: “For me, there must be something else.”
The sparklers “weren’t powerful enough to ignite the acoustic foam. I had done some tests.”
There are indications, however, that a fire risk was known.
A video from New Year’s Eve 2019 shows an employee warning customers not to hold bottles with sparklers too close to the foam.
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Sudden blaze
“They wanted to do a show with bottles, and then the whole bar exploded,” a firefighter sent to the scene told police.
“The fire spread in the same way throughout the entire structure. We call that a ‘flash fire’ or ‘flashover’. This phenomenon happens when smoke or gas ignites.”
A customer interviewed by investigators said “a fireball went up the stairs” when someone opened the front door on the ground floor.
Another mentioned “a noise, like a big whoosh, a rumbling” at the moment the bar burst into flames.
“On the floor, there were… handbags and mobile phones in relatively good condition. However, items that were higher up were burnt or melted,” the firefighter explained.
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The owners
The Morettis are under criminal investigation, facing charges of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence.
According to sources close to the case, Jessica Moretti is 39 and from southern France, while her 49-year-old husband is from the Mediterranean island of Corsica.
He is being held in custody for an initial three months, while she is free but barred from leaving the country.
Probe criticised
Lawyers representing victims’ families, criminal law experts and even top Italian government officials have harshly criticised the way Valais public prosecutors have pursued the case.
They have highlighted a failure to conduct swift searches, a lack of routine post-mortem examinations, and the fact the Morettis were not initially detained and were permitted to hold onto their mobile phones for days.
“All of this raises serious concerns,” Alain Macaluso, director of the Centre for Criminal Law at the University of Lausanne, told AFP.
“In a case of this magnitude, there is an absolute need for transparency, respect for procedural rules and confidence in the justice system.”
In the hours following the tragedy, Jessica Moretti told investigators the bar had 14 surveillance cameras, most of them in the basement.
It remains to be seen whether footage from the night can be recovered.
