Prosecutors Defend Their Probe Into Deadly Crans-Montana Bar Fire

Police control access to the street where a fire ripped through a crowded bar.

Photographer: Maxine Schmid/AFP/Getty Images

Prosecutors in the Swiss canton of Valais defended their probe into a deadly bar fire in Crans-Montana that killed 40 people as they rejected a request to appoint a special investigator to the case.

The fire, during a New Year’s party in the mountain resort, also injured more than 100 people. Among those killed were citizens of Switzerland, France, Italy and Portugal, many of them teenagers.