Where were the sprinklers? (Part One)

In the aftermath of the Swiss night-club’s deadly fire, I’ve been wondering why there weren’t mandatory fire sprinklers in such a public places at the Crans-Montana resort like they exist in Park City, Utah, where I live? The question of fire safety at the Le Constellation bar and nightclub has become a point of national debate in Switzerland following the tragic fire on January 1, 2026. 

The absence of sprinklers in that venue—and many similar public spaces across Europe—is the result of a specific regulatory philosophy and a "gap" in existing fire codes that is only now being urgently re-evaluated. In the United States and Canada, fire safety relies heavily on active suppression (sprinklers that put out the fire). In contrast, Swiss and many European fire codes traditionally prioritize passive protection. 

This includes using fire-resistant walls and doors to keep a fire contained in one room for 30–60 minutes. The exit routes are focusing on their number, width, and visibility so people can leave before the fire spreads. Also, the regulation the flammability of building materials is an extra consideration. Under current Swiss standards, sprinklers are generally only mandatory for high-risk categories like high-rise buildings, hospitals, and massive industrial sites. 

Smaller public venues like Le Constellation often met legal requirements by simply having enough fire extinguishers and marked exits. In many Swiss cantons, a venue must reach a very high capacity (often over 1,000–2,000 people) before automatic suppression becomes a legal requirement. Le Constellation could accommodate approximately 300 people. Because it fell below this high threshold, the law allowed it to operate with manual safety measures (extinguishers) rather than a multi-million-franc sprinkler system. 

The Canton of Valais (where Crans-Montana is located) has historically been noted by fire safety experts for having pretty lax interpretations of these rules compared to stricter cantons like Zurich or Bern. Then, there’s the "Grandfathering" of older buildings in Alpine resorts with their older, traditional wooden structures or stone basements. It’s clear that installing a modern sprinkler system in an old building requires some expensive infrastructure judged too high for small business owners. 

That certainly applies to old mining towns turned into ski resorts like Park City, Aspen or Telluride, but there’s no exception there, fire sprinklers have to be installed regardless of their cost. More recently, in 2014, we built a new home in Park City that required the installation of fire sprinklers. Our town was an early adopter of residential fire safety standards. A 2002 local ordinance began requiring sprinklers in all new residential construction, including single family homes. 

Tomorrow we’ll explore if automatic sprinklers would have saved lives at the Constellation…