The Albany Gazette - Swiss investigate bar managers after deadly New Year's blaze

French couple Jacques and Jessica Moretti owned and managed Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, which was crammed with young partygoers when a blaze began in a packed basement at around 1:30 am (0030 GMT) on Thursday.

Forty people were killed and 119 injured, most of them seriously, according to the latest toll.

Dozens of those badly burnt were taken to nearby countries for urgent treatment, while authorities pointed the finger at lit sparklers attached to champagne bottles igniting foam on the ceiling.

"A criminal investigation was opened last night against the two managers of the bar," police and public prosecutors in the southwestern Swiss canton of Wallis said in a statement Saturday.

"They are charged with manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence."

The authorities recalled that "the presumption of innocence applies", and a police spokesman told AFP the pair had not yet been detained.

- First fatalities identified -

The announcement came shortly after the first bodies pulled from the bar were identified: four young Swiss nationals, two of them just 16 years old.

Police said the bodies had been returned to their families as efforts continue to identify the other victims.

Six of those injured also remain unidentified, police said Friday.

Many of those injured were foreign nationals, and given Crans-Montana's international popularity, non-Swiss citizens are also expected to figure among the dead.

"Switzerland is profoundly saddened," Justice Minister Beat Jans told reporters near a makeshift memorial outside Le Constellation, overflowing with flowers, candles and messages of grief and support.

"It's incredibly emotional to see the place and realise how strong the power of these flames must have been," he said, after visiting the less-damaged first-floor section of the bar.

"You can smell it... You can see the damage that was caused by these flames, they must have been incredibly intensive. 500, 600 degrees even on the top floor," he said.

"It was an enormous tragedy."

- Search for loved ones -

Swiss authorities warned it could take days to identify everyone who perished, leaving an agonising wait for family and friends, while desperate appeals to find those missing circulated online.

The question of whether safety standards were respected has been debated ever since the devastating blaze.

Jacques Moretti insisted to the Swiss press on Friday that all safety norms were followed at the bar, which according to the Crans-Montana website had a capacity of 300 people plus 40 on its terrace.

But even before charges were brought against the couple, Wallis chief prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud said safety norm compliance was a key focus of the investigation.

She told reporters Friday that the leading hypothesis was that "sparklers or Bengal candles attached to champagne bottles and lifted too close to the ceiling" had ignited the deadly blaze.

One video shared on social media showed the low wooden ceiling -- covered with soundproofing foam -- catching alight and the flames spreading quickly, as revellers continued to dance, unaware of the death trap they were in.

Once they realised, panic set in.

- 'Highly flammable' -

Eyewitnesses described scenes of chaos as people tried to break through the windows to escape, while others, covered in burns, poured out into the street.

Looking at the images of the event, experts suggested "highly flammable" soundproofing foam covering the ceiling may have caused a flashover -- a near-simultaneous ignition of everything in an enclosed space.

Nathan, who had been in the bar before the fire, saw burnt people streaming out of the site, "crying out for help".

Of the injured, Wallis police commander Frederic Gisler said Friday that at least 71 were Swiss, while nearly a dozen were Italian and others were from France, Serbia, Bosnia, Belgium, Poland, Portugal and Luxembourg.

The French foreign ministry said Saturday that 16 French nationals were injured in the blaze, while nine remained missing.

- 'Covered with bandages' -

Guido Bertolaso, the regional health chief for Italy's Lombardy region, told reporters that a critically injured 15-year-old girl was expected to arrive in Milan by helicopter Saturday for treatment.

Two other boys believed to be Italian were also at the Zurich burn centre, awaiting DNA testing.

"Why can't we identify them? Because their faces are completely covered with bandages... (and) they are intubated, so they are unable to speak," he said.

Numerous groups have meanwhile sprung up on social media to offer assistance services for family members of victims and medical and rescue teams that have flooded into Crans-Montana from numerous countries.

One such announcement offered "a small apartment for one or two people (a couple) in Grimisuat, a 20-minute drive from Crans and 12 minutes from the hospital in Sion... Only for family or medical personnel involved in the Crans-Montana tragedy".

(L.Thomas--TAG)