The mayor of a Swiss village where 40 people died and 116 suffered severe burns after an inferno tore through a ski bar on New Year’s Day has admitted that the party venue had not had any safety checks for five years.
Speaking to a press conference five days after the tragedy, Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas Feraud said that no periodic safety inspections had been carried out since 2019 at Le Constellation bar in the Swiss ski resort.
‘We are profoundly sorry. We did not have an indication that the checks had not been done’.
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‘We regret that – we owe it to the families and we will accept the responsibility.’
The mayor also confirmed he would not be resigning, telling reporters that he and his officials were elected by the people of Crans-Montana and that they have to be there to help residents.
‘I’m not resigning, no, and I don’t want to.’
‘We’re not departing the ship right now’.
Authorities have said they believe the fire started when people celebrating New Year raised champagne bottles with sparklers attached, setting light to sound insulating foam on the ceiling of the bar’s basement.
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Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas Feraud said that no safety inspections had been carried out since 2019 at Le Constellation bar
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A photo appears to show the moment champagne sparklers set fire to material on the ceiling of the Swiss nightclub
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Flowers and candles are pictured in tribute to the victims of the fire at ‘Le Constellation’ bar and lounge in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, 05 January 2026
Mr Feraud said that the sound-proof foam used in the bar was considered acceptable at the time.
All sparkler candles have now been banned inside venues, the mayor added.
The local council are looking at why this happened, which will include a full audit of all venues in the area and ensure more checks are carried out, Mr Feraud said.
He added that it is ‘down to the judges’ to determine who is responsible.
Most of the victims of the blaze that ripped through the ski bar were teenagers and Swiss authorities have been scrambling to find answers as to how the disaster occurred.
In a statement issued at the press conference, the Municipality of Crans-Montana said it had gone through all the documents in the file submitted to the Wallis canton public prosecutor’s office following the fire.
It said the documents detail ‘administrative procedures relating to the establishment’s compliance’.
‘Although more than 1,400 fire inspections were carried out in the municipality in 2025 alone, the municipal council deeply regrets discovering that this establishment had failed to undergo periodic inspections between 2020 and 2025.’
The council said it would commission a specialist external agency to inspect all public establishments and would ban pyrotechnic devices indoors.
‘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.’
Questions have been raised over the age of the victims who were inside the venue when the fire broke out – with several of them said to be between the ages of 14 and 17.
Witnesses say that the bar was known for having a relaxed age verification policy, Swiss news outlet Blick reports.
Similarly, minors who entered the establishment before 10pm were generally not required to leave afterward.
One teenager named Oscar revealed that there was also a secret entrance to the bar through a sliding glass door that belonged to the adjacent ski shop.
‘During the night, the door was always locked and only opened automatically from the inside,’ 19-year-old Oscar claimed.
‘But whoever had the door code could also get in from the outside at night,’ he said, suggesting that minors could have slipped right past the bouncer.
It is unknown if any of the victims on the night of the tragedy had accessed the bar through this entrance.
Swiss authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the bar managers – married couple Jacques and Jessica Moretti.
The two are suspected of involuntary homicide, involuntary bodily harm and involuntarily causing a fire, according to the Valais region’s chief prosecutor.
The couple are both currently at liberty, as they assist the judicial authorities with their enquiries.
They have indicated that they will open an enquiry into ‘arson by negligence’ and ‘manslaughter by negligence’ if ‘criminal liability is established’.
In the meantime, the French couple have not been formally charged, and are free to travel.
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Jacques and Jessica Moretti who owned the Swiss bar, Le Constellation, in Crans-Montana which caught fire New Years Eve. The pair are currently under investigation
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A woman lights a candle at a makeshift memorial outside ‘Le Constellation’ bar, after a deadly fire and explosion during a New Year’s Eve party, in the upscale ski resort of Crans-Montana
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Laetitia Brodard-Sitre the mother of Arthur Brodard, who died during the deadly fire and explosion at a New Year’s Eve party in ‘Le Constellation’ bar, mourns at a makeshift memorial outside the bar. Crans-Montana, Switzerland, January 4, 2026
Mr Feraud added that authorities had closed another venue run by the bar’s operators.
Swiss police on Monday said they had identified all the people who were injured in the fire.
They put the total at 116, more than two-thirds still in hospital.
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, according to a police statement.
There were also four dual nationals: of France and Finland, France and Italy, Switzerland and Belgium, and Italy and the Philippines.
Police said 83 of the injured were still in hospitals. They didn’t give further details or specify their ages.
The severity of burns made it difficult to identify some victims of the fire that broke out at about 1:30a.m. on New Year’s Day, requiring families to supply authorities with DNA samples.
Authorities announced on Sunday evening that they had completed the identification of the 40 people who died, the youngest of them aged 14.
On Monday, Italian authorities flew home the bodies of five victims from the airport in Sion, the regional capital.
