Switzerland is enveloped in a profound silence today as the nation observes a day of mourning for the 40 young lives tragically lost in a devastating fire at a ski resort bar. The bar, packed with New Year revelers, became a scene of horror as flames engulfed it.

In a gesture of solidarity, French President Emmanuel Macron arrived at Geneva airport earlier this morning. He then traveled to Martigny, a town situated approximately 31 miles from Crans-Montana, the site of the catastrophic fire, to attend a memorial service. This somber event marks a week since the disaster struck at Le Constellation bar, leaving a staggering 116 individuals with severe injuries, including third-degree burns.

As the clock struck 2:00 PM (1300 GMT), the entire nation paused for a minute of silence, paying homage to the victims. This moment of reflection was followed by church bells softly tolling across Switzerland for five minutes, initiating a national ceremony of remembrance in Martigny, located in the southwestern part of the country.

Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who has solemnly described the fire as “one of the worst tragedies that our country has experienced,” attended the ceremony. He was joined by Italian President Sergio Mattarella, whose country mourns the loss of six of its citizens in the horrific blaze.

Swiss President Guy Parmelin, who has declared the fire ‘one of the worst tragedies that our country has experienced’, is also joined for the ceremony by Italian president Sergio Mattarella, whose country lost six nationals in the inferno.

Top officials from Belgium, Luxembourg, Serbia and the European Union were also due to participate in the ceremony.

It comes as the husband and wife owners of the nightclub arrived for questioning at the prosecutor’s office today.

Jacques Moretti, 49, and his wife Jessica, 40, face charges of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence.

The couple were photographed arriving for a hearing in Sion, the capital of the canton of Valais.

Inhabitants of the plush ski resort town will be able to watch the ceremony as it is livestreamed to large screens, including at the congress centre that for days after the tragedy accommodated families seeking news of missing loved ones.

In the centre of Crans-Montana, as everywhere in Switzerland, flags are at half-mast. 

A memorial that has sprung up in front of the bar, loaded with flowers, candles and messages of grief and support, was covered in an igloo-like tarp on Thursday to protect it from the heavy snowfall.

Inside, a woman broke down sobbing as she tried to light a candle late Thursday, as another woman laid a consoling arm around her.

On a nearby table, a thick memorial book brims with messages.

‘A great national loss forever etched in our minds. May they rest in peace,’ one reads. 

‘My heart is heavy,’ reads another.

‘Everything is different now,’ said a French woman in her 30s who works seasonally in Crans-Montana and who did not want to give her name.

‘Before, this place was all smiles. Now, there are no more smiles here,’ she told AFP Friday.

Most of those impacted by the inferno at Le Constellation were Swiss, but a total of 19 nationalities were among the fatalities and the wounded, including nine French victims.

The Swiss Football Association (SFV) said in a social media post that nine football players from three regional clubs in western Switzerland died in the incident. 

‘We are in mourning and share the pain of all the victims and injured of the Crans-Montana tragedy, as well as that of their families,’ the statement reads. 

‘Nine young Swiss footballers, from three regional clubs in French-speaking Switzerland, lost their lives, and several others were injured. We stand with the families, loved ones, and clubs – today, tomorrow, and also when silence falls.’ 

Half of those killed in the blaze were under 18, including some as young as 14.

Johan Verthoogen, a 31-year-old tourist from Belgium, told AFP he had been nearby on the night of the disaster, and had seen numerous fatalities laid out under blankets.

‘It was really tough… to see those bodies,’ he said. ‘They were kids.’

Of those injured, 83 remain in hospital, with the most severely burned airlifted to specialist centres across Switzerland and abroad.

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.

Experts have suggested that what appeared to be highly flammable foam may have caused a so-called flashover – a near-simultaneous ignition of everything in an enclosed space, trapping many of the young patrons.

Video footage which has emerged from the tragedy shows young people desperately trying to flee the scene, some breaking windows to try to force their way out.

On Tuesday, municipal authorities acknowledged that no fire safety inspections had been conducted at Le Constellation since 2019, prompting outrage.

Two women in the Alpine town told 20 Minutes they wouldn’t be attending the memorial today because they were still reeling from the inferno.

‘We are very sad and also traumatised. I am now afraid of fire. For the past week, the region has been living in a state of sad exception. Everyone knows people affected and is grieving. We are trying to continue our lives as normally as possible,’ one said.

‘The media frenzy is starting to wear us down – and we don’t want to distract the bereaved families either. We will not be attending the ceremony today. We prefer to gather in small groups with acquaintances, like most of the locals.’

The investigation underway will seek to shed light on the responsibilities of the authorities, but also of bar owners Jacques and Jessica Moretti.

The French couple, who have not been detained, said in a statement Tuesday that they were ‘devastated and overwhelmed with grief’, and pledged their ‘full cooperation’ with investigators.

They will need to answer numerous questions about why so many minors were in the bar, and whether fire safety standards were adhered to.

‘We expect our clients, the families, to receive answers… and for all responsibilities from A to Z to be established,’ said lawyer Romain Jordan, representing several affected families.

The families, he said, want to know ‘why this tragedy… was able to occur here in Switzerland, despite all the legal, legislative, and surveillance measures in place’. 

There has been much focus on the soundproofing foam, which, according to photos taken by the owners, had been added during renovations in 2015.

A video filmed by a member of the public, screened Monday by Swiss broadcaster RTS, showed that the danger was known years ago.

‘Watch out for the foam!’, a bar employee said during 2019 New Year’s Eve celebrations, as champagne bottles with sparklers were brought out.

‘This video is staggering,’ Jordan, who is expected at the hearing today, told AFP, saying it showed ‘there was an awareness of this risk – and that possibly this risk was accepted’.

Former staff have claimed that safety standards at the club were poor, alleging that fire extinguishers were kept under lock and key and that the bar’s emergency exit was often locked. 

Last weekend, multiple media outlets in France and Belgium reported that Mr Moretti, who is originally from the Mediterranean island of Corsica, is well known to the French authorities.

In 2005 he was implicated in a kidnap plot in Savoie, the Alpine department of France close to Crans–Montana, and incarcerated.

Le Parisien reports: ‘According to our information, Jacques Moretti is no stranger to the French justice system.

‘He is known for pimping cases dating back some twenty years, as well as for a kidnapping and confinement case. He was imprisoned in Savoie.’

Quoting its own legal source, RTL, the radio network, reported: ‘The Corsican–born man in his sixties was imprisoned in Savoie in 2005, for involvement in cases of pimping, fraud, kidnapping, and false imprisonment.’

There was no initial response to the revelations from lawyers representing Mr Moretti.

Swiss attorney general Beatrice Pilloud said: ‘Everything suggests that the fire started with incandescent candles placed in champagne bottles, which were brought too close to the ceiling, causing a rapid and widespread conflagration.’

Mr Moretti has claimed his bar ‘followed all safety regulations’, despite being inspected only ‘three times in ten years’ by health and safety officials. 

Article 8 of the local fire prevention code states that inspections must take place ‘every year in buildings open to the public or presenting special risks’.

Mr Moretti, who owns three businesses around Crans–Montana, was not in Le Constellation on the night of the fire, but his wife was, and suffered a burned arm.

He and his wife have also been accused of ‘destruction of evidence’ after the bar’s social media accounts were blocked during the blaze. 

Romain Jordan, a lawyer representing several of the 116 people who were injured at Le Constellation, said that the nightclub’s Facebook and Instagram accounts and website had been suspended as firefighters were trying to extinguish the flames and rescue victims.

The blaze broke out at about 1.30am and the accounts were blocked ‘between 3am and 6.30am’, he told The Times. 

‘It’s quite striking,’ he added. ‘It’s curious that while the emergency operation was under way, someone was thinking about this.’

The lawyer said the suspended social media accounts had previously shared videos of the New Year’s Eve party at the bar and of previous festivities. 

‘They showed how the bar was, and [the suspension] shows that the question of security came to the managers’ minds straight away,’ he said. 

A promotional video for Le Constellation shows waitresses passing around champagne bottles fitted with sparklers, and carrying buckets full of several bottles also with sparklers inside. 

Asked at a press conference on Tuesday about the fact that the bar had not been checked in five years, Crans-Montana’s mayor Nicolas Feraud said: ‘I have no answer for you today.’

‘We’re profoundly sorry about that and I know how hard that will be for the families,’ he added.

He said it was ‘down to the judges to know whether we’ll be part of this case or not’, referring to whether councillors will be questioned as part of the criminal investigation that has been opened by Swiss prosecutors.

He added that ‘the city of Crans-Montana, we believe we are also a victim in this case’. 

He told reporters that officials would have ‘acted immediately’ had they been made aware of any safety concerns surrounding the bar.

‘I would have much preferred these people come and shout at my door and say: “This is a question of not if but when.”‘

He added: ‘It is very easy to come and cry and scream now at us but how about before?’

The Niguarda Hospital in Milan, where 11 burn victims from the inferno are being treated, is appealing for more tissue donations.

The hospital has so far used 13,000 square centimeters of skin from its ‘Tissue Bank’ in just one week, according to Corriere della Sera.

‘They were used to cover the wounds of four people, thus reducing the risk of infection and allowing the patients’ skin to regenerate,’ the newspaper said.

While another 50,000 square centimeters are being stored in special refrigerators at -80C, the supplies need to be constantly replenished and the hospital is appealing for more. 

While organ and cornea donations increased last year (by five and 15 per cent respectively), tissue donations dropped by a quarter. 

Hospitals in Zurich have now received 93,000 square centimetres of donor skin from Dutch tissue bank ETB-BISLIFE for the burn victims.

Teenage sisters who were celebrating the New Year have been identified as two of the 40 victims killed as a fire broke out in a bar in Switzerland – alongside a musician who was performing a DJ set as the flames took hold.

Swiss nationals Alicia and Diana Gunst, 15 and 14, died in the inferno at Le Constellation bar in the early hours of January 1, alongside French producer Matéo Lesguer and 37 other people.

Among the victims was 15-year-old Charlotte Niddam, who had spent time growing up in Britain, attending the private Immanuel College in Bushey, Hertfordshire and the Jewish Free School in north-west London.

The teenager held British, Israeli and French citizenship and was identified with the assistance of Israeli emergency services organisation Zaka.

Crans-Montana’s website listed her as a babysitter available for hire at the resort.

Her family confirmed her death in a social media post on Sunday, writing: ‘It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beautiful daughter and sister Charlotte. Details regarding the funeral arrangements will follow shortly.’

The post said Charlotte’s funeral is expected to take place in Paris later this week.

In a tribute, Bushey United Synagogue Rebbetzen Jacqueline Feldman said: ‘The world will simply not be as bright and beautiful without Charlotte and her gorgeous smile and we will all miss her dearly.’

Swiss national Arthur Brodard, 16, was confirmed to be among the dead by his heartbroken mother Laetitia in a video on social media.

Laetitia had last heard from her son as midnight approached, as he sent her a message reading: ‘Happy New Year, mum.’ 

She had been among the anxious parents seen in Crans-Montana showing pictures of her son to reporters, holding out hope that he may be found alive.

‘Our Arthur has now left to party in paradise,’ she said, visibly shaken, in the video shared online on Saturday. 

‘We can start our mourning, knowing that he is in peace and in the light.’