Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas Feraud said Monday he had not known that safety checks had not been carried out for six years at a Swiss ski resort bar where a fire killed 41 people during New Year celebrations.
Feraud was questioned for the first time by public prosecutors investigating the blaze that swept through Le Constellation bar in a disaster that shocked Switzerland.
He had said the day after the fire on January 1 that safety inspections had not been carried out at the bar in upscale Crans-Montana since 2019, despite a requirement for annual checks from local authorities.
The mayor is one of nine people under criminal investigation over the tragedy, which left 115 people injured, many of them badly burned, in addition to the dozens killed.
Read more‘You killed my brother’: Bereaved families confront Crans-Montana bar owners
Feraud’s lawyer Christian Delaloye said his client had not been informed about the lack of inspection “before January 2” and had provided his staff with the resources to carry out checks.
The investigation aims to determine the exact circumstances of the fire, the owners’ compliance with regulations and the potential criminal responsibility of local authorities.
Those under investigation include the bar’s French owners — husband and wife Jacques and Jessica Moretti — who face charges of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence.
Several of the plaintiffs’ lawyers said they were frustrated at a lack of clear explanations.
“We didn’t get answers to the key question – why there were no inspections for six years,” said Alain Viscolo, one of the lawyers representing the civil parties, ahead of the hearing.
“We were given information about the public safety system in Crans-Montana, but we end up with a whole plethora of people in charge who are ultimately responsible for very little,” he said.
Read moreCrans-Montana fire: hearings continue with Morettis under questioning
‘Negligence’
“I can’t say I’m satisfied with the answers that have been given,” said lawyer Romain Jordan, who represents several victims’ families.
“However, the reality is that we’re getting a closer look at the dynamics of negligence that led to this tragedy.”
Prosecutors believe the fire started when champagne bottles with sparklers attached were raised too close to the ceiling in the bar’s basement level, igniting the sound-insulation foam.
The Wallis public prosecutor’s office began a new round of hearings in Sion last week, summoning former and current local council officials for the first time.
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Last week, the former head of the Crans-Montana council’s fire safety department exercised his right to remain silent because, his lawyer told AFP, he did not yet have access to the case file.
The deputy to the council’s former head of public safety and a current member of the public safety team were able to be questioned.
A former town councillor is scheduled to be interviewed on Wednesday.
Co-owner Jacques Moretti was due to be questioned again last week but the hearing was postponed indefinitely on medical grounds.
Following the fire, seriously wounded patients were airlifted to various hospitals and specialist burns units throughout Switzerland and Europe.
The Federal Office for Civil Protection told AFP that as of Wednesday, 38 patients were still in hospitals and rehabilitation clinics in Switzerland and neighbouring countries.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)