Swiss prosecutors order owner of club in deadly blaze to be detained
Swiss prosecutors said yesterday that they had ordered one of the two owners of a ski resort club where a fire on New Year's Day killed 40 people to be detained due to flight risk, with local media saying that the order had been carried out.Prosecutors are investigating the French owners on suspicion of crimes including homicide by negligence, while victims' families have filed legal complaints over the fire at "Le Constellation" in Crans-Montana in the Canton of Valais.Shortly after Swiss newspaper *24 Heures reported that one of the couple, Jacques Moretti, has been remanded in custody, prosecutors said they had issued an order for him to be held.The Valais police declined to comment.Earlier, Jacques and Jessica Moretti did not respond to reporters' questions as they entered the prosecutors' office in the town of Sion for a hearing.Swiss authorities have designated yesterday as a national day of mourning.The couple have expressed their grief over the fire and said they would co-operate fully with the investigation.More than half of those who died were teenagers and a further 116 people were injured, many of them seriously.Several French and Italian citizens were among the dead, and Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called for stern punishment to be meted out to those responsible for the blaze.Italian President Sergio Mattarella and French President Emmanuel Macron joined Swiss leaders, victims' families and firefighters at a ceremony yesterday in the town of Martigny, where a minute's silence was held to remember the victims.Dozens of people also stood near the shuttered club in nearby Crans-Montana in silence, heads bowed under heavy snowfall.Authorities placed hundreds of letters, teddy bears and bouquets of flowers for the fire victims beneath an igloo to protect them from snowfall.Speaking at the Martigny ceremony, Swiss President Guy Parmelin said he hoped that those responsible for the fire would be brought to account "without delay or leniency".That must also include relevant political authorities, said Mathias Reynard, head of the Valais government.Speaking in Rome yesterday, Meloni pledged to help the families of the Italian victims find justice, and said she was weighing a ban in Italy on the use of sparklers indoors."What happened in Crans-Montana is the result of too many people not doing their job or thinking they were making easy money,” she said. “Those responsible must be identified and prosecuted."Witnesses and prosecutors have said the blaze appeared to have been started by the use of sparkling candles that set foam soundproofing on the basement ceiling alight.Questions remain about oversight at the club, which the local mayor admitted this week had missed multiple safety checks.Prosecutors said last weekend that the legal criteria to detain the club's owners had so far not been met.In a January 6 statement, the owners said: "We are devastated and overcome with grief, our thoughts are constantly with the victims, their loved ones who have been bereaved so brutally and prematurely, and all those who are fighting for their lives."Twenty-one of the dead were from Switzerland, seven from France, and six from Italy.A Swiss-French dual national and a French-British-Israeli national were also among the dead.Nicolas Dobler, a 38-year-old volunteer fireman in the northwestern Swiss canton of Jura, said he had come with three colleagues to light candles at the memorial at Crans-Montana."We came specifically today for the national day of mourning and also to really support our fellow firefighters who have truly experienced something horrible," he told AFP. "It's a situation you would never want to encounter. You can't prepare for this kind of thing, it's impossible. Even with all the training in the world."Olena, a 61-year-old Ukrainian refugee living in the nearby city of Sion below, said she had also come up the mountainside to take part in the day of mourning."I come from Ukraine, where people are also dying,” she said. “This was terrifying. I wanted to come and honour the victims."Outside Le Constellation, Federico Gelle, a 17-year-old from Italy's Tuscany region, lit a candle for so many teens his own age who had perished.He knelt down and seemed to pray among the flowers, before straightening his glasses and re-emerging, his eyes filled with tears."This is a terrible thing, but it was avoidable," he told AFP. "I haven't lost anyone here... but it is just very sad."Gelle said that if he had chosen to spend New Year's Eve in Crans-Montana, as he had in the past, he might very well have been among the victims."It's a thought that sent shivers down my spine... I think I am very lucky."Matthias Gerhardt, 61, had meanwhile made the trip from Geneva, visiting Crans-Montana for the first time."What happened is so serious, it's unbelievable. That's why I came all this way," he told AFP."We are in a state of national mourning. It is important that we can express our anger, speak with people," he said. "It is important to participate."