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The Morettis were questioned separately shortly after the disaster.
KEYSTONE/Jean-Christophe Bott
Shortly after the fire disaster in Crans-Montana, the couple who ran the hotel were questioned. A media report now provides new details of the night of the accident.
Shortly after the devastating fire disaster, the operators of "Le Constellation" were questioned by investigators for the first time. The French TV station BFMTV has now reported on the details of the separate interrogations of Jacques and Jessica Moretti.
According to the report, Jacques Moretti reported that he tried to revive a waitress in the bar for around an hour. The waitress in question was 24-year-old Cyane, who was very close to the family. The emergency services finally told him that it was too late. His wife Jessica told investigators: "Cyane was like my little sister. She spent Christmas with us. I'm devastated."
Jacques Moretti himself was not in the bar when the fire broke out. At 1.28 a.m., he received a call from his wife telling him to come immediately. At first, he tried to get into the bar. "But it was impossible, everything was full of smoke," Jaques Moretti told the investigators.
Together with two other people, he finally went to the back door, but it was locked. After the three of them broke down the door, they saw several lifeless people, including Jaques' daughter-in-law.
Jessica Moretti also reported a previously quiet evening. She herself had arrived at the bar at 10.30 pm. "There were very few people there at midnight," she told the investigators. She said to Cyane that "we needed more people to get the atmosphere going".
Finally, she tells the investigators about the outbreak of the fire. "Suddenly I felt a movement in the crowd," says Jessica Moretti. "I saw an orange light in the corner of the bar. I immediately shouted: 'Everyone out' and called the fire department. I left the bar through the main entrance and went up the stairs to tell the security guard to get everyone out."
Jaques Moretti finally sent his wife Jessica home. He told the investigators: "I told her not to stay here and watch this tragedy. I wanted to protect her."
According to the BFMTV report, investigators also questioned the couple about security measures at the bar. Jaques Moretti admitted that he took over the bar in 2015 and renovated it himself "from A to Z" - "from the floor to the furniture to the bar". He also replaced the existing soundproofing on the ceiling.
The electrical and ventilation systems, on the other hand, had been outsourced to private companies. There was also a main exit and an emergency exit at the back. Both were clearly marked as such, Moretti assured the investigators.
Photos of the construction work available to BFMTV support this statement. Moretti goes on to say: "The fire department has carried out two or three fire safety inspections in the ten years of operation", without ever demanding "renovations or structural changes to the building".
The bar operator also said that fire extinguishers were present, but no automatic sprinkler system. When asked whether the bar's employees were trained in emergency measures such as dealing with a fire in the bar, Moretti replied "no".
