“This was not a case of bad luck or misfortune … a modicum of common sense and some prevention measures would have been enough to avoid it.
“It appears that there was just one emergency exit and it was not easily identifiable. There were very few security staff – possibly just one. They probably also lacked fire extinguishers. The soundproofing panels that were attached to the ceiling were highly flammable.
An Italian Air Force plane prepares to take home the bodies of five Italian teenagers killed in a Swiss bar fire on New Year’s Day.Credit: AP
“These kids were abandoned. They were left alone in the midst of a disaster.”
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.
Tages-Anzeiger, another leading Swiss newspaper, said questions must be answered about age checks at the bar, the soundproofing material used in the basement and the standards governing use of the so-called fountain candles believed to have triggered the fire.
Italian teenager Emanuele Galeppini was killed in the fire.Credit: Italian Golf Federation
One of the bar’s two operators, Jacques Moretti, told Swiss media that Le Constellation had been checked three times in 10 years and that everything was done according to the rules.
Authorities in the canton of Valais said investigators were checking if the bar had undergone its annual building inspections, but that the town had not raised concerns or reported defects to the canton.
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The municipality of Crans-Montana said it has handed prosecutors documents relevant to the investigation and had joined the criminal proceedings as a civil party.
“This will allow [the municipality] to actively contribute to establishing all the facts,” it said.
Crans-Montana will on Friday hold a ceremony honouring the victims. The French government said president Emmanuel Macron would attend.
Reuters
