Fireworks blast claims third life

A father of three children yesterday died of his injuries six weeks after an explosion devastated the fireworks factory of St Joseph's De Rohan Band Club in Wied Qirda, limits of Zebbug.

Joe Zammit, Iz-Zelli, 39, is the third victim of this tragedy. Antoine Cilia (Il-Pexx), 34 and Charles Farrugia (il-Bagalji), 59, had died on the spot on July 4.

Mr Zammit had been receiving treatment at the Intensive Therapy Unit since the day he was rushed to hospital suffering from 66 per cent burns. His family, however, had been confident he would recover.

"He was doing well and he was hopeful that he would be out of hospital in time for our daughter's confirmation in October," his wife Marvic told The Times yesterday, her strong voice cracking under the emotional pain.

Instead, she will have to face the ordeal of burying her husband tomorrow, on the very day she would otherwise have been raising a glass of champagne to celebrate their fourteenth wedding anniversary.

Mrs Zammit, 34, is battling hard to remain strong in the face of her husband's death for the sake of her children Wayne, 12, Michaela, nine and Manuel, seven.

The past weeks have been a blur and Mrs Zammit has had to endure three blows: "For me it's as if he died three times - the day of the blast, three weeks ago when he took a turn for the worse and today when he died in the early morning hours."

It is another irony that the couple, both from Zebbug and both supporters of the St Joseph's band club, met at the feast of St Philip, which is celebrated by the rival band club.

They dated for three years and then tied the knot. They became inseparable, yet Mrs Zammit was forever worried about his passion for fireworks.

"He was always into fireworks and his mother recounts the day when he was still a boy attempting to prepare the paper cases for the petards on her doorstep," she said, a faint smile crossing her face. For a time after they got married Mr Zammit tried very hard to suppress his zeal for the sake of his family but he gradually became deeply involved all over again.

"He would never tell me the details and he always avoided the subject because he knew how much I worried," she said.

On the day of the incident, Mr Zammit had been waiting for his wife to return from work to take care of the children before he left for the fireworks factory, where together with six others he was preparing for the feast of St Joseph.

"He left home at 2.15 p.m. and less than two hours later I heard a loud noise. My heart sank when my brother called asking where Joe was, something he never did," she recalled.

In her panic, Mrs Zammit, who doesn't drive, gathered her children together and set off on foot towards the scene of the blast. When she got there, several people told her he was not at the factory but she knew better and rushed off to hospital.

"His condition was quite bad when he was admitted. But when he started to get better, we became hopeful. His doctor also started grafting skin, which was another positive indication," she said.

The family was so optimistic that his older brother booked a trip to Tunis while his wife returned home (she had been living with her mother) last Saturday to start putting things in order and preparing for his eventual return. That day she received an urgent telephone call to go to hospital.

"The nurses wouldn't have called unless it was really bad news. My worst fears were confirmed. Who would have ever dreamt that I would be celebrating my fourteenth anniversary without him," she said.

Though the police issued a statement saying that the autopsy will be held today, it is believed Mr Zammit died as a result of septicaemia, a serious, rapidly progressing, life-threatening infection that can arise from infections throughout the body.

The funeral will be held tomorrow at the Zebbug parish church at 4.30 p.m. A procession led by St Joseph's De Rohan Band Club will accompany the coffin from the Madonna ta' Mamo chapel at 4 p.m. to the parish church.