A woman looks at tributes placed outside the “Le Constellation” bar, after a deadly fire and explosion during a New Year’s Eve party in the upscale ski resort of Crans-Montana in southwestern Switzerland, Jan. 4, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas

The bar that caught fire at a ski resort in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on New Year’s Eve, killing 40 people including three Jewish teens, had not been inspected by safety inspectors for the last five years, the mayor of the town said on Tuesday morning.

“Periodic inspections were not carried out between 2020 and 2025. We bitterly regret this,” Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas Féraud said at a press conference held five days after the deadly fire at Le Constellation bar, which was renovated in 2015. “The municipal council became aware of this situation by consulting the documents submitted to the public prosecutor’s office this weekend. The courts will determine the influence that such a failure in the chain of events that led to the tragedy.”

The mayor told reporters he could not explain why the establishment was not annually inspected by safety officers every year as required by law.

“We’re profoundly sorry, and I know how hard that will be for the families,” Féraud added. He said the Crans-Montana municipality did not want to conceal any information regarding the fire last Wednesday because “we believe we owe it to the victims and their families.” The cause of the blaze has not been officially determined, but the mayor added that the public prosecutor’s office is in charge of the criminal investigation and is working with relevant judicial authorities.

The last of the 40 people who died in the fire were identified on Sunday, including 15-year-old Israeli citizen Charlotte Niddam. She was initially reported as missing. Niddam was a former student at Immanuel College, a private school in Hertfordshire in the UK, and the Jewish Free School in northwest London before she moved with her family back to their native France, according to the latter school. She worked as a babysitter for the resort during school break, according to the Crans-Montana resort website.

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper mentioned Niddam’s death in a post on X, saying, “My thoughts are with all her family and friends after this devastating loss.” Niddam’s cousin is ZAKA International Rescue and Recovery Director-General Baruck Niddam, who participated in commanding the operation of identifying and recovering bodies of the deceased from the fire, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Jewish-Italian sisters Alicia and Diana Gunst, ages 15 and 14, respectively, were also identified on Sunday among those killed in the fire. The sisters lived in the Jewish community of Lausanne, Switzerland, and are the youngest victims of the fire. The 40 victims were all between the ages of 14 and 39, but 20 of them were minors. In addition, 116 people were injured in the blaze.

Swiss authorities so far have said they think the fire was set off by sparklers inside the bar that were raised too close to the ceiling during the New Year’s Eve celebrations. Féraud said at the press conference on Tuesday morning that the soundproof foam used in the Le Constellation ceiling was acceptable to safety officers at the time of the last inspection, before 2020. He announced that the municipal council has commissioned a specialized external firm that will conduct an audit of all public establishments in Crans-Montana “as quickly as possible.” The municipal has also banned sparklers, and all pyrotechnic or similar devices, inside public establishments.

The bar’s owners, French nationals Jacques and Jessica Moretti, are being investigated by authorities and are facing charges of homicide by negligence, bodily harm by negligence, and arson by negligence, a source told AFP. The mayor said the couple have not been arrested but a second business they own has been shut down.

The couple said in a statement to AFP they were “devastated and overwhelmed with grief” over the fire. They promised to full cooperate with investigators and added, “We will not attempt to shirk our responsibilities in any way.”

Former New York State Assemblyman Michael Blake is running for US Congress in the Democratic primary in New York’s 15th Congressional District. Photo: Screenshot

Although Democratic congressional candidate Michael Blake has made opposition to US military spending and Israel’s war in Gaza a centerpiece of his insurgent left-wing campaign to unseat incumbent US Rep. Ritchie Torres in New York, newly surfaced documents reveal that Blake maintains deep ties to defense contractors.

Financial disclosures and employment records examined by New York Focus are complicating Blake’s message in the Democratic primary for New York’s 15th Congressional District, raising questions about whether his own professional history undercuts the left-wing, anti-militarism platform on which he is campaigning. The documents show that Blake himself has maintained a longstanding professional relationship with a defense contractor that has received millions of dollars in federal contracts, including from the US Department of Defense.

According to financial disclosure forms and public records reviewed by the New York outlet, Blake began working in 2018 as a vice president at Eccalon, a Maryland-based defense firm that provides services to federal agencies, including the Pentagon. Public filings show that Eccalon secured millions in Pentagon contracts. Ethics filings list Blake’s compensation in ranges that in later years reached the $100,000 to $250,000 range. Blake’s Linkedin Page indicates that he started working at the firm in 2018 as a “senior advisor” and continues his employment with the firm to this day.

Blake, a former New York Assemblymember and past Democratic National Committee vice chair, has accused Torres of profiting from investments in major aerospace and defense firms that receive Pentagon contracts. His campaign has sought to link those holdings to Torres’s staunch support for Israel and robust US military assistance, positions that have drawn fierce criticism from progressive activists.

In a campaign launch video, Blake took aim at Torres’s alleged connections with weapons manufacturers.

“Ritchie Torres invested in weapon makers,” a narrator said in the campaign video. “He profited from it.”

“I will invest in the community. Ritchie invests in Bombs,” Blake wrote on social media.

The issue is especially salient as Blake courts voters aligned with the Democratic Party’s left flank, many of whom are mobilized around opposition to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and broader skepticism of the US defense industry. Blake has embraced that rhetoric on the campaign trail, casting himself as part of a new generation willing to challenge the foreign policy consensus in the federal government.

Torres, for his part, has defended his positions as consistent with his long-standing support for Israel’s security and US strategic alliances, while noting that his financial disclosures comply fully with congressional ethics rules.

The clash underscores a broader tension within the Democratic Party, where candidates increasingly run against defense spending and US support for Israel.

The congressional district, one of the poorest in the nation, has a child poverty rate of 37 percent, according to the US Census Bureau, the highest in the country and a figure Blake has cited to argue for redirecting attention to the needs of working families.

Blake’s attacks have prompted backlash of their own. As reported by the New York Post, the challenger appears to have deleted years of social-media posts praising Israel and AIPAC, the influential pro-Israel lobbying group he once openly supported. Between 2014 and 2017, Blake attended AIPAC events and heaped praise on the Jewish state. Blake subsequently deleted photos of himself at AIPAC events after receiving criticism.

Smoke and flames rise from the site of a burning building, in Denver, Colorado, US, Jan. 2, 2026, in this still image obtained from a social media video, video taken behind glass. Photo: X @DaLitiGator/via REUTERS

The Staenberg-Loup Jewish Community Center (JCC) in Denver, Colorado, is collecting items “of appreciation” to give to local fire stations that contained a massive fire in the area on Friday night that forced the JCC to temporarily close for several days.

The Jewish nonprofit organization has set up collection bins in its lobby and is also sponsoring fresh challahs for local fire crews who battled the fire that started at a nearby apartment complex under construction. Stephanie Herm, the JCC’s chief operating officer, told ABC’s Denver 7 the JCC is asking community members to donate snacks, beverages, and cards for local firefighters.

“They’ve been working since Friday night, around the clock, and we’re very fortunate that they kept it. We came to that site. And so, it’s the least we can do,” Herm said. “One of our lenses in our school is gratitude, and so we really focused on doing things for the community and making sure that the kids were engaged with what’s going on, and that was one way that we can show appreciation.”

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) announced on Tuesday that its National Response Team (NRT) has been deployed to help investigate the origin and cause of Friday’s five-alarm fire at the Harker Heights Apartments under construction near Leetsdale Drive and South Forest Street. The fire burned for several days, forcing evacuations of homes and businesses, power outages, and street closures. One firefighter was injured, according to an ATF press release.

“The NRT is bringing federal resources and expertise to this complex investigation,” said ATF Special Agent in Charge Chris Ashbridge. “It is a top priority for us because we understand the immense challenges this fire has created for residents and businesses.”

A total of 156 firefighters from several stations in the area worked to contain the inferno under “heavy fire conditions” due to the stage of construction, which helped the blaze spread quickly, the Denver Fire Department said in a Facebook post. The apartment complex, which was set to open in May, was fully engulfed in flames. The siding of a nearby home was partially melted from the heat, according to local reports, but no other damage to businesses, residences, or casualties has been reported.

The JCC closed shortly after the fire broke out on Friday and stayed closed through the weekend. It has since reopened, according to its website.

“We made the difficult decision to close both Saturday and Sunday because of the air quality and inside the building smelled like campfire,” Herm told CBS News. “When I was on site Saturday, going to and from the car was very difficult to breathe.”

The Denver Fire Department is asking anymore who wants to share a video or information about the fire to use their tip line by calling or texting 720-672-5101.