Key Points
- Italy’s Prime Minister says the deadly New Year’s fire caused by negligence
- The fire killed 40 people, most of them teenagers, and injured 116 others.
- Meloni calls for those responsible to be identified and prosecuted.
- Italy’s public prosecutor has opened an investigation into the case.
ROME: Italy’s prime minister said Friday the New Year’s fire in a Swiss ski resort bar that killed 40 people was due to people “not doing their job” or chasing “easy money”.
The comments by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni came the same day as Switzerland held a national day of mourning for the victims — most of them teenagers — of the fire in Crans-Montana, which left 116 people injured.
“What happened in Crans-Montana is not a tragedy. What happened in Crans Montana is the result of too many people not doing their job or thinking they could make easy money,” Meloni told journalists at her annual New Year’s press conference in Rome.
“And those responsible must be identified and prosecuted.”
Meloni said she had been struck by the fact that some of the young people remained in the basement bar, where the party music continued to play, even after flames broke out.
“Why wasn’t it stopped? Why weren’t these kids told to leave? Why didn’t the municipality carry out checks?” she asked, referring to the lack of fire safety inspections at the bar for the past five years, as admitted by local officials.
Meloni confirmed that Rome’s public prosecutor had opened a file on the case and vowed justice for Italian victims: “The families have my word that they will not be left alone as they seek justice in this matter.”
While the prime minister said Italian regulations were “stricter” than those in the Swiss municipality, she questioned whether Italy should ban the use of sparklers in enclosed spaces.
Prosecutors believe the blaze started when champagne bottles with sparklers attached were raised too close to sound insulation foam on the ceiling in the bar’s basement section.
