An Australian teenager is mourning the loss of a friend in a Swiss ski resort fire that has become the subject of a criminal investigation.
Forty people died and 119 were injured when the fire broke out inside Le Constellation Bar in Crans-Montana in the early hours of January 1, local time.
Yaron Lavy, whose family moved from Melbourne to Switzerland six years ago and who was celebrating New Year's Eve in Crans-Montana, said he was haunted by the fact he could have been one of the victims.
Mr Lavy, 17, said he was planning to join friends at the bar just before the fire broke out, but stopped to get water — a decision he said may have saved his life.
"It's very traumatising and it's hard to cope with thinking that I could have been where they are right now," he said.
In the confusion that followed the tragedy, Mr Lavy began frantically searching for four friends who were unaccounted for.
Within 48 hours, he learned one of those friends had been confirmed among the dead.
"He was 17 years old. We went to football games together. He was a very, very nice guy," Mr Lavy said.
He has since learned that one of the other friends was in a coma in hospital, while two others were still unaccounted for.
Mr Lavy said the reality of what happened still had not sunk in and he was dreading the thought of going to school on Monday.
"I'm trying to distract myself [from] it, but any time of the day … [on] any social media, it's just going to talk about it every day, every week," Mr Lavy said.
Criminal investigation opened
The bar at the centre of the tragedy has been cordoned off since the blaze. On Saturday, local time, it officially became a crime scene.
Police in Valais, the canton where Le Constellation bar is located, announced that the French managers of the bar were under criminal investigation as of Friday night, local time.
"Following the initial investigations, conducted under the direction of the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Canton of Valais, a criminal investigation was opened [Friday] night against the two owners of the bar," the Valais police statement read.
It went on to say the married owners, Jacques and Jessica Moretti, are suspected of offences including homicide by negligence, causing bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence.
Mr Moretti had previously told Swiss media they had not broken any safety regulations, and denied witness reports that there was only one exit from the basement bar.
He also said there had been three safety inspections of the bar since the couple bought and renovated it in 2015.
Authorities have previously said there had not been any reports of irregularities or defects, but they would investigate thoroughly — particularly the soundproof cladding on the bar's ceiling, which caught fire.
"The investigation is indeed looking into the installation of this foam on all the elements surrounding it," Swiss Chief Prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud told reporters on Friday afternoon, local time.
"The investigation will determine, as far as possible, whether it complies with regulations and whether it is the cause of the problem."
Grief and anger
The community outpouring of grief has been so extensive that authorities have had to build tables to hold all the floral tributes placed around the scene.
More than a dozen victims are yet to be identified.
For many residents, grief has turned to anger.
But Mr Lavy said he hoped this tragedy would compel people to live life to the fullest.
"Just have fun in your life — as long and as much as you can — because in an instant it could change," he said.
"That's just what my friends are living right now … in treatment, trying to survive."
