Fire disaster Four French witnesses to testify about the fire in Crans-Montana
As part of the investigation into the fire disaster in Crans-Montana VS, the public prosecutor's office of the canton of Valais, which is responsible for the case, will shortly be sending a request for legal assistance to the public prosecutor's office in Paris. Four French witnesses are to be questioned.
24.02.2026, 11:09
SDA
According to the Italian news agency Ansa on Monday evening, the Swiss prosecutors are planning to question three employees of the "Le Constellation" bar. One of them is a 28-year-old waiter who was carrying a female colleague with a helmet on her shoulders who died in the fire on New Year's Eve. She is said to have caused the fire unintentionally by lifting a champagne bottle with a pyrotechnic candle to the ceiling, whereupon it caught fire. She is said not to have known that the ceiling was not fireproof.
The Valais investigators also want to question a waiter and a waitress as well as a guest. The aim is to obtain further information about the course of events on New Year's Eve in the bar, the moments immediately before the fire and the safety precautions taken in the restaurant.
All witnesses are French nationals and currently live in their home country, which is why a request for legal assistance is necessary. "We have given the lawyers a deadline so that they can ask their additional questions," said the Attorney General of the Canton of Valais, Béatrice Pilloud, on Tuesday at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency. The request for mutual legal assistance will then be sent.
An initial request for mutual legal assistance has already been sent to the French authorities. It concerned the procurement of documents in connection with the case.
