Crans-Montana Authorities Back Mayor In Fire Safety Probe

The municipal authorities point out, as did Nicolas Féraud's lawyer Christian Delaloye on Monday evening, that“since 2017, the city council has systematically responded favourably to all requests for staff increases made by the former and current heads of the public security department, without exception”. It added“that it has never set a budget limit in relation to security”.

“From 2017 to 2024, the number of full-time jobs (FTE) increased from 1 to 5 people, making the municipality's public safety department one of the largest in the canton in terms of staff numbers. Since then, and until the New Year's tragedy, the public safety department has not requested any further staff increases,” the city points out.

With regard to the 2023 audit of the municipality's operations,“its purpose was not to analyse a particular department, but to hear the views of each head of department a few years after the merger of the four municipalities (editors note – this included Chermignon, Montana, Randogne and Mollens on January 1, 2017)”, the authorities stress.

This content was published on Feb 16, 2026 Crans-Montana was aware of fire safety inspection deficiencies before devastating bar fire on January 1.