Mayor Reveals Site of Swiss Bar Fire That Killed 40, Including 3 Jewish Teens, Had No Safety Inspection for 5 Years

The bar that caught fire at a ski resort in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on New Year’s Eve, killing 40 people including three Jewish teens, had not been inspected by safety inspectors for the last five years, the mayor of the town said on Tuesday morning.

“Periodic inspections were not carried out between 2020 and 2025. We bitterly regret this,” Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas Féraud said at a press conference held five days after the deadly fire at Le Constellation bar, which was renovated in 2015. “The municipal council became aware of this situation by consulting the documents submitted to the public prosecutor’s office this weekend. The courts will determine the influence that such a failure in the chain of events that led to the tragedy.”

The mayor told reporters he could not explain why the establishment was not annually inspected by safety officers every year as required by law.

“We’re profoundly sorry, and I know how hard that will be for the families,” Féraud added. He said the Crans-Montana municipality did not want to conceal any information regarding the fire last Wednesday because “we believe we owe it to the victims and their families.” The cause of the blaze has not been officially determined, but the mayor added that the public prosecutor’s office is in charge of the criminal investigation and is working with relevant judicial authorities.

The last of the 40 people who died in the fire were identified on Sunday, including 15-year-old Israeli citizen Charlotte Niddam. She was initially reported as missing. Niddam was a former student at Immanuel College, a private school in Hertfordshire in the UK, and the Jewish Free School in northwest London before she moved with her family back to their native France, according to the latter school. She worked as a babysitter for the resort during school break, according to the Crans-Montana resort website.

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper mentioned Niddam’s death in a post on X, saying, “My thoughts are with all her family and friends after this devastating loss.” Niddam’s cousin is ZAKA International Rescue and Recovery Director-General Baruck Niddam, who participated in commanding the operation of identifying and recovering bodies of the deceased from the fire, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Jewish-Italian sisters Alicia and Diana Gunst, ages 15 and 14, respectively, were also identified on Sunday among those killed in the fire. The sisters lived in the Jewish community of Lausanne, Switzerland, and are the youngest victims of the fire. The 40 victims were all between the ages of 14 and 39, but 20 of them were minors. In addition, 116 people were injured in the blaze.

Swiss authorities so far have said they think the fire was set off by sparklers inside the bar that were raised too close to the ceiling during the New Year’s Eve celebrations. Féraud said at the press conference on Tuesday morning that the soundproof foam used in the Le Constellation ceiling was acceptable to safety officers at the time of the last inspection, before 2020. He announced that the municipal council has commissioned a specialized external firm that will conduct an audit of all public establishments in Crans-Montana “as quickly as possible.” The municipal has also banned sparklers, and all pyrotechnic or similar devices, inside public establishments.

The bar’s owners, French nationals Jacques and Jessica Moretti, are being investigated by authorities and are facing charges of homicide by negligence, bodily harm by negligence, and arson by negligence, a source told AFP. The mayor said the couple have not been arrested but a second business they own has been shut down.

The couple said in a statement to AFP they were “devastated and overwhelmed with grief” over the fire. They promised to full cooperate with investigators and added, “We will not attempt to shirk our responsibilities in any way.”