Fire safety inspections lapsed for years at Swiss bar where 40 died in
New Year's blaze
[January 07, 2026]
By GEIR MOULSON
Fire safety inspections hadn't been carried out since 2019 at the Swiss
bar where a fire at a New Year's party left 40 people dead and over 100
injured, local authorities said Tuesday.
Investigators have said they believe sparkling candles atop Champagne
bottles ignited the fire at Le Constellation in the resort town of Crans-Montana
when they came too close to the ceiling. Authorities are looking into
whether soundproofing material on the ceiling conformed with regulations
and whether the candles were permitted for use in the bar.
Swiss authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the bar
managers. The two are suspected of involuntary homicide, involuntary
bodily harm and involuntarily causing a fire, according to the Valais
region’s chief prosecutor.
The regulations in Valais call for annual fire safety inspections of
buildings that are “accessible to the public," and regional authorities
say they are the responsibility of the municipality. On Tuesday, the
Crans-Montana municipality said that inspections of Le Constellation
that included fire safety checks had been carried out in 2016, 2018 and
2019, and that modifications had been requested — but no issues with
soundproofing measures had been raised.
The local council discovered after consulting documents after the fire
that “periodic checks were not carried out between 2020 and 2025,” the
head of Crans-Montana’s municipal government, Nicolas Féraud, told a
news conference.
“We regret this bitterly,” he said, adding that it will be up to
judicial authorities to determine what influence that may have had on
the events that led to the fire.
Féraud said he couldn't immediately explain why safety inspections
hadn't been conducted for such a long time.
Féraud said that, in September last year, an external expert had been
asked to carry out a soundproofing analysis and had concluded that the
bar complied with anti-noise rules, without making further remarks.
The severity of burns made it difficult to identify some victims of the
fire that broke out at about 1:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day, requiring
families to supply authorities with DNA samples.
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Swiss Minister of Justice Beat Jans and State Councillor Mathias
Reynard lay flowers at the sealed off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana,
Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, where a devastating
fire left dead and injured during the New Year's celebrations. (AP
Photo/Antonio Calanni)
Investigators finished identifying the 40 dead on Sunday and said on
Monday that they had identified all 116 people who were injured,
from several countries.
On Monday, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced that it was
opening a probe to assist the Swiss investigation and make it easier
for families of French victims to communicate with Swiss
investigators. Nine French citizens were killed, the youngest 14,
and 23 were injured.
Féraud said reports from the inspections that were carried out
mentioned a maximum capacity of 100 people on the bar's ground floor
and 100 in its basement. It's unclear how many people were in Le
Constellation when the blaze broke out and investigators have said
that may never be known.
The municipality said the bar's owner obtained a permit to build a
veranda in 2015 and also carried out interior work at the bar that
did not require a permit.
It said it has now decided to ban the use of fireworks indoors and
commission an external agency to carry out inspections of such
establishments.
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John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.
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