Swiss authorities say the fire was probably sparked by small fireworks on champagne bottles that ignited foam insulation on the bar’s basement ceiling.
Aurelien Breeden, Reporting from Crans-Montana, Switzerland
The two managers of a bar in the Swiss Alps where at least 40 people died in a sudden fire this week have been placed under criminal investigation because of allegations of negligence, Swiss police said on Saturday
The investigation was opened on Friday night over suspicions of negligent homicide, negligent bodily harm, and causing a fire by negligence, according to a statement from the police in the Valais canton, the area of Switzerland where the bar is located.
The police statement did not detail what evidence had led to the criminal investigation, nor did it name the managers of the bar, an establishment called Le Constellation in the center of Crans-Montana, a popular ski resort town in southern Switzerland.
Public business records identify the owners of the bar as a French couple, Jacques and Jessica Moretti, who opened it in 2015. As of Saturday, the Morettis had not responded to earlier requests for comment from The New York Times. In brief interviews with the Swiss media this week, they said they were fully cooperating with investigators and denied any wrongdoing.
“We can neither sleep nor eat; we are all in a terrible state,” Mr. Moretti told 20minutes.ch, a local news site.
In its statement, the police in Valais said that “the presumption of innocence applies until a final conviction is handed down.”
The Swiss president, Guy Parmelin, described the disaster as one of the worst tragedies in the country’s history. Many of the victims were seriously burned in the fire that engulfed the bar’s basement, and the authorities have struggled to identify many of the casualties because they were so badly disfigured. On Saturday, the police announced they had identified four more victims, all of them Swiss citizens aged 16 to 21.
Beatrice Pilloud, the prosecutor general of the Valais canton, said Friday that the likely cause of the fire had been the use of finger-size fireworks placed on champagne bottles that sent up a fountain of sparks, igniting foam insulation on the basement’s ceiling.
Aurelien Breeden is a reporter for The Times in Paris, covering news from France.
