Swiss Ski Resort Bar Where 40 Died in Fire Had No Safety Inspection Since 2019, Mayor Says

Prosecutors said the fire was likely caused by champagne sparklers igniting the soundproofing foam in the bar’s basement ceiling.

A makeshift memorial near the Le Constellation bar, in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, Jan. 2, 2026. Denis Balibouse/Reuters

The après-ski bar in which 40 people died after a fire broke out during the early hours of New Year’s Day hadn’t undergone a safety inspection since 2019, the mayor of the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana said on Jan. 6.

“We are profoundly sorry. We did not have an indication that the checks had not been done,” Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas Feraud said about the lack of fire safety checks at the Le Constellation bar between 2020 and 2025.

Feraud said fire inspections should have been carried out annually in the town’s bars and that the last one in 2019 at Le Constellation had been positive.

The soundproof foam on the venue’s basement ceiling, which investigators said may have helped the blaze spread, was considered acceptable at the time, and a fire alarm was not required because of the bar’s size, he said.

“There were never any checks on this soundproofing foam. Our security agents did not consider it necessary,” Feraud said.

He said that the law does not require authorities to verify such materials but that “the courts will have to determine whether this should have been done regardless.”

The bar’s maximum capacity was 200 people, according to Feraud, and emergency exits were designed to cope with 100 people on each of its two levels. He said he did not know whether the downstairs exit was working the night of the fire and that investigators would determine this.

Feraud added that sparkling candles, which prosecutors believe may have caused the inferno, have now been banned inside Crans-Montana venues.

Prosecutors said the fire was likely caused by champagne sparklers that ignited the soundproofing foam in the bar’s basement ceiling.

Chief prosecutor Béatrice Pilloud told reporters on Jan. 2 that investigators have now confirmed central elements of their initial theory about the fire at Le Constellation.

“Everything suggests that the fire started from the burning candles or ‘Bengal lights’ that had been attached to champagne bottles,” Pilloud said at a news conference, adding that this hypothesis was likely but not yet confirmed.

“From there, a rapid, very rapid and widespread conflagration ensued.”

Pilloud said that the sparklers or flares likely came too close to the ceiling, leading to a “flashover” fire, in which combustible gases ignite almost simultaneously throughout a confined space. She said investigators are looking into whether the ceiling’s insulation foam contributed to the quick spread of the blaze.

Authorities are investigating the people who ran the bar. The Public Prosecutor’s Office of the canton of Valais charged the two managers of the Le Constellation bar with negligent homicide, negligent bodily harm, and negligent arson, according to a Dec. 3, 2025, statement by the Valais Cantonal Police. They have not been publicly named by police, but property records from the Valais cantonal government list the property as belonging to a French couple, Jacques and Jessica Moretti.

Feraud said authorities had also closed another venue run by the bar’s operators.

All 40 people who died in the flames have been identified, police said on Jan. 4.

Twenty-six of the victims were teenagers, including a 14-year-old from France and a 14-year-old from Switzerland, police said. No names were released.

In total, 21 of the dead were Swiss citizens, seven were French, and six were Italian.

Other victims came from Romania, Turkey, Portugal, and Belgium. One victim was a Swiss-French dual national, and another was a 15-year-old girl who held French, Israeli, and British citizenship.

The ages of the deceased range from 14 to 39.

Switzerland will hold a national day of mourning on Jan. 9, Swiss Confederation President Guy Parmelin stated on Jan. 4.