.
Swiss police. Photo: AFP (file)
CRANS-MONTANA:
The owner of the bar in a Swiss ski resort ravaged by a deadly fire on New Year’s Eve insisted to Swiss media on Friday that safety standards had been followed.
Jacques Moretti, a Frenchman who runs the Le Constellation bar with his wife Jessica, told the Pakinomist de Geneve daily that the establishment had faced “three inspections in 10 years”. “Everything was done according to the rules,” he said.
Questions over whether safety standards were met have raged ever since the devastating fire broke out in the basement of the bar, killing 40 people and injuring 119, according to the toll issued by police on Friday.
Le Constellation, located on the ground floor of a residential building, has a capacity of 300 people, plus another 40 people on its terrace, according to Crans-Montana’s website.
Several witnesses said that the function room in the basement of the establishment where the fire started was only connected to the ground floor by a staircase, which some described as “narrow”.
