The Constellation Fire

A public planning application document concerning the alteration of the Constellation's terrace was falsified in December 2025, two weeks before the fire: a civil engineer's name appeared on it without his knowledge, as the project draughtsman lacked the diploma now required in Valais to sign plans. The engineer reported the matter to the police.

The Beloved Foundation, set up on 27 March by the canton of Valais to support victims and their families, has received some seventy applications. Endowed with 24 million francs from the cantons of Valais and Vaud, the municipality of Crans-Montana and private donors, it is chaired by Doris Leuthard and directed by Christian Cardon. It supplements statutory benefits without replacing them.

Questioned on 28 July by the prosecutors, Chermignon's former safety officer states that no thorough inspection took place before the Constellation opened in December 2015. He filled in the fire safety document without visiting the site, working from plans and photomontages. The basement works, where the acoustic foam was located, were never inspected.

Rose-Marie Clavien, former municipal councillor for construction of Crans-Montana (2017-2024), becomes the seventeenth defendant. She is accused over the 2017 opening of the cigar bar fitted out in the Constellation's basement without official authorisation. The defendants are now the Moretti couple, eight elected or former elected officials and seven municipal employees or former employees.

Jacques Moretti is placed in pre-trial detention in proceedings separate from the fire investigation, on suspicion of violence against his wife, herself a defendant in the Constellation case. Two confrontation hearings of the couple are scheduled for November and December.

Thibault Beytrison, former municipal councillor for security of Crans-Montana (2017-2020) and former head of the fire and rescue centre (2008-2014), becomes the sixteenth defendant. His hearing is set for 29 September.