#crans-montana-fire

#crans-montana-fire

French couple Jacques and Jessica Moretti's bar, Le Constellation, in the ski resort of Crans-Montana, caught fire early on January 1 as partygoers celebrated. Forty people, mostly teenagers, were killed in the blaze, and 116 others were injured. The Morettis are under criminal investigation, facing charges of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence. Prosecutors believe the fire started when revellers raised champagne bottles with sparklers attached close to sound insulation foam on the ceiling of the bar's basement level.

On average, the cartoons published on the Instagram account of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo get a few hundred reactions, but a recent drawing by cartoonist Eric Salch has prompted more than 15,000 social media users to express their dismay. It was published as Switzerland observed a national day of mourning to commemorate the victims of the deadly fire in a bar in Crans-Montana on New Year's Eve, which killed 40 people, most of them teenagers.

An additional 116 people were injured, many of them seriously, when the fire broke out less than two hours after midnight at the Le Constellation bar on Jan. 1. Investigators have said they believe sparkling candles atop Champagne bottles ignited the fire 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. Fire safety inspections hadn't been carried out since 2019.

The bar that was the scene of the fire, Le Constellation in the resort of Crans-Montana, was full of Swiss people and tourists celebrating New Year's Day in the early hours of Thursday when the blaze began in the basement area. Prosecutors say that, according to initial investigations, the likely cause of the fire was sparklers on champagne bottles being carried "too close to the ceiling".