Anger grows over Crans-Montana blaze at Le Constellation bar as police identify injured
Dave Graham And Cecile Mantovani
Crans-Montana, Switzerland: Anger is growing in Italy over a fire that broke out in a Swiss bar on New Year’s Eve and killed 40 people, including five Italian teenagers whose bodies were repatriated on Monday.
Swiss police said they had identified all 116 people injured, as well as the 40 people who died in the fire at Le Constellation bar in the Crans-Montana ski resort, and confirmed that one of them was Australian. Two-thirds of those injured are still receiving treatment in hospitals across Europe.
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said in his social media post, “In civilized Switzerland, the prison doors will have to be opened to many people,” adding that it was not ensured that the basement of the bar was safe and that it was questioned whether emergency systems and adequate supervision were carried out.
Authorities are investigating two men who run the bar on suspicion of crimes including negligent homicide. On Sunday, police said the circumstances did not warrant the couple’s arrest at this time and that they did not believe they posed a flight risk, but Swiss newspaper Blick He questioned why they were still free.
Authorities said most of those killed were teenagers, with the youngest being only 14 years old. The dead came from all over Europe, most from France and Italy. On Monday, Italian authorities flew the bodies of five young victims home from the airport in the regional capital Sion. A sixth Italian youth lived in Switzerland, where he was buried.
Investigators said they believe festive sparkling candles on top of champagne bottles ignited the fire when they got too close to the ceiling. Some of the victims were so badly burned that families had to provide DNA samples to authorities to help with identification.
Italian Ambassador to Switzerland Gian Lorenzo Cornado told Italian media that the fire could have been prevented and that the bar owners were irresponsible.
“It looks like the owners of Le Constellation wanted to economize on everything so they could make more profit. I can’t think of any other reason,” he said. LaStampa.
“This was not a case of bad luck or misfortune… a modicum of common sense and some preventive measures would have been enough to avoid it.
“There appeared to be only one emergency exit and it was not easy to identify. There were very few security personnel, probably only one. They probably did not have fire extinguishers either. The soundproof panels installed in the ceiling were extremely flammable.
“These children were abandoned. They were left alone in the middle of a disaster.”
According to the statement made by the police, the injured include 68 Swiss citizens, 21 French citizens, 10 Italians, four Serbs, two Poles and one person each from Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Portugal and the Republic of Congo. There were also four dual citizens: 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 did not provide further details or indicate their age.
Tags-AnzeigerAnother of Switzerland’s leading newspapers said questions needed to be answered about standards for age checks at the bar, soundproofing material used in the basement and the use of fountain candles believed to have triggered the fire.
Jacques Moretti, one of the two operators of the bar, told the Swiss media that Le Constellation had been checked three times in 10 years and that everything was done according to the rules.
Officials in the canton of Valais said inspectors checked whether the bar had passed its annual building inspection, but the town did not raise concerns or report the defects to the canton.
The municipality of Crans-Montana said it provided prosecutors with documents related to the investigation and participated in the criminal proceedings as an intervening party.
“This will allow [the municipality] “To actively contribute to revealing all the facts,” he said.
Crans-Montana will hold a ceremony honoring the victims on Friday. The French government said President Emmanuel Macron would attend.
Reuters
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