Manager of Swiss Bar Where 40 Died in New Year Fire Detained

One of the two managers of a bar that was the site of a deadly fire that claimed 40 lives in the Swiss mountain resort of Crans-Montana has been arrested following questioning.

The man was deemed to be a flight risk “in view of his statements, his life history, and his situation in Switzerland and abroad,” and so has been taken into detention, the prosecutor’s office in the canton of Valais, where Crans-Montana is located, said in a statement Friday.

The woman who runs the business with him was not considered a sufficient flight risk given her “background and personal ties,” and so alternate measures were put in place, prosecutors said. The couple were questioned for a number of hours on Friday morning. The pair, originally from Corsica according to multiple media reports, had been running the bar for about a decade.

Prosecutors said the investigation is ongoing and a presumption of innocence applies to both individuals.

They have been investigating the managers over alleged fire safety failures. Possible charges include homicide and bodily injury by negligence. The fire appears to have been triggered by sparklers held aloft in champagne bottles that ignited highly-flammable, soundproofing foam on the ceiling.

There is also controversy surrounding local authorities who are supposed to enforce fire safety. Officials have admitted that the bar hadn’t been checked and inspected for safety since 2019.

Speaking Friday, Swiss President Guy Parmelin said that it’s “a moral responsibility as well as a duty of the state” to thoroughly examine what went wrong and sanction anyone responsible for those violations.

He was attending a ceremony for the victims of the blaze, part of a Swiss day of mourning.