(Jan 12): A service door that might have offered a second escape route at the Swiss bar where a deadly fire claimed 40 lives on New Year's Eve was locked at the time of the incident, one of the managers told Swiss prosecutors, according to national broadcaster RTS.
The man, who co-owned the bar in the ski resort of Crans-Montana with his wife, told the authorities he went to unblock the door on the ground floor of the bar himself from the outside and found bodies behind it, RTS reported without saying how it obtained the information.
The man also bought sound-proofing foam for the ceiling of the bar from a hardware store and installed it himself, according to the RTS report. The fire appears to have been triggered by sparklers held aloft in champagne bottles that caught fire to the highly-flammable foam, prosecutors have said.
Lawyers for the couple didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment. The prosecutor’s office in the canton of Valais, where the deadly blaze occurred, acknowledged Bloomberg’s request for comment on the report but declined to immediately comment.
They are investigating the couple over alleged fire safety failures, and have said that possible charges include homicide and bodily injury by negligence. The man was arrested following questioning on Friday, after being deemed a flight risk, prosecutors said. His partner and co-manager was not taken into custody, given her connections to the region, they said.
Failures of local authorities have also emerged during the wider investigation, with the mayor of Crans Montana saying that the bar hadn’t been inspected for fire safety since 2019. Under local law, the municipality was responsible for doing so on a regular basis.
Many of those who died were teenagers, with the youngest just 14 years old. Some of the more than 100 people injured are still being treated in hospitals across Europe, given the severity of their burns.
See also: UBS warns on Swiss capital plans as government loses support
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