Tragedy brought people together in Crans-Montana and brought the country to a standstill.
On Friday, just down the road from the bar where 40 young people were killed by fire on New Year’s Eve, church bells rang in their memory.
They tolled right across Switzerland, to mark a national day of mourning.
Then, moments after the last notes of a special memorial service had faded, came the news that one of the bar’s owners had been detained.
Swiss prosecutors said Jacques Moretti, a French national, was a potential flight risk. He and his wife Jessica, who is also French, are suspected of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence.
Many of the victims’ families had demanded action like this from the start: more than a week after the fire, the anger in this community has been increasing.
At the main ceremony in Martigny, down in the valley, relatives of the dead were joined by survivors. Some had come from hospital for the memorial. People held white roses in their laps and gripped each other’s hands for support.
“The images we faced were unbearable. A scene worse than a nightmare. Screams ringing out in the icy cold, the smell of burning. It was apocalyptic,” a young woman called Marie told the audience.
She had been in a bar opposite Le Constellation when the fire broke out and suddenly found herself helping the injured as they ran from the flames.
She said she would never forget what she’d seen.
Listening in the front row were the presidents of France and Italy, whose citizens were among those killed and injured in the fire. Both countries have opened their own investigations.
Back in Rome, Italy’s prime minister vowed to make sure all those responsible were identified.
“This was no accident. It was the result of too many people who did not do their jobs,” Giorgia Meloni said.
She wants to know why the music wasn’t cut as soon as the fire started.
“Why did no-one tell the young people to get out? Why did the council not make the proper checks? There are too many whys.”
In Crans-Montana people have the same questions and many more.
For now, the only two formal suspects are the co-owners of Le Constellation, Jacques and Jessica Moretti. Early on Friday, the pair were called in by prosecutors. They are being investigated for causing death and injury through negligence but have not been charged.
Now Jacques Moretti has been remanded in custody. In a statement, the public ministry said the move followed a “new assessment of the flight risk.”
“I constantly think of the victims and of the people who are struggling,” his wife told a crush of TV cameras after several hours of questioning at the ministry.
It was her first public comment since the fire.
“It is an unimaginable tragedy. It happened in our establishment, and I would like to apologise.”
Nine days on, Le Constellation is still obscured from view behind white plastic sheets. A lone policeman stands guard, his face covered against the relentless snow.
What unfolded inside the building’s basement has gradually become clearer – and it’s the story of a disaster that should never have happened.
Mobile phone footage shows a sparkler tied to a champagne bottle apparently starting the fire as it brushes the ceiling. Covered with soundproofing foam that was never safety tested, it ignites quickly.
When the crowd eventually rush for the exit in panic, there is a crush on the stairs. It seems the emergency doors were blocked.
But another video, from six years ago, suggests the risk was well known. On the footage, a waiter can be heard warning that the material on the ceiling is flammable.
“Be careful with the foam,” the voice shouts, as people wave the same sparklers.
But the questions here are not just for the owners.
This week the local authorities in Crans made the shocking admission that they hadn’t carried out mandatory safety checks of the bar for five years.
They offered no explanation.
“It was a hell inside that bar. More than 1,000 degrees of temperature. There was no way to escape,” Italy’s ambassador to Switzerland, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, told the BBC, citing a long list of safety violations.
Six Italians were killed as a result.
“Italy wants justice, the Italian government wants justice and the Italian people want justice, for sure. The families want justice,” the ambassador stressed.
That includes for those with life-changing injuries.
The regional hospital in Sion took the first major influx of patients. The stress was compounded by the fact that many doctors’ own children were partying in Crans for the New Year.
“They were all scared the next stretcher to arrive would be carrying their own child,” hospital director Eric Bonvin remembers.
But he’s proud of how his team coped.
Some casualties were unconscious and so badly burned, it took time to identify them.
The most serious cases were moved to specialist burns centres elsewhere in Switzerland and in Europe where some are still in a critical condition.
All face a long, tough path to recovery which the doctor likens to a “rebirth” because many of his young patients have severe burns to the face.
“First the body needs to be protected, like the foetus in a mother’s womb. That’s what’s happening for many now. Then they will have to re-enter the world and find their identity,” Professor Bonvin says.
“It will take a lot of work and resilience.”
Add to that the anguish of surviving.
“They came round and at first they felt lucky to be alive. But some now feel this guilt, wondering why they are here, but not their friend or brother,” Bonvin explains.
“It is a delicate moment.”
In central Crans, the heap of tributes for the dead is still growing, protected from the elements by a canvas.
After leaving their own fresh flowers on Friday, many people then stood in front of the ruins of the bar itself for a moment. Remembering, in silence.
