Government mum over fireworks factories memo

The government is refusing to say why it failed to consult the Explosives Committee when in 2001 it intervened to effectively legalise two fireworks factories, which stand 130 metres short of the legally-recommended safe distance from public roads and inhabited areas.

The Times reported two weeks ago that the Cabinet had directly intervened in 2001 to bypass regulations that would have forced the closure of two Gharghur fireworks factories, the Briffa and St Helen's, which exploded three weeks ago killing five people. Both factories, which stand less than 50 metres from the road that connects Naxxar to Ta' l-Ibrag, would breach the law regulating fireworks factories, which provides for a 183-metre safety buffer from any inhabited place or street that is "used regularly". Following an explosion at the Briffa factory in 2000, which also affected the St Helen's, the Cabinet issued a memo regularising the position of both fireworks.

Sources close to the pyrotechnics industry later told The Times that the Explosives Committee, a consultative body of professionals entrusted with overseeing the regulation of fireworks, had not been consulted before this decision was taken.

Moreover, the same sources said, the two factories are among a group that were identified as "unsafe" in a confidential 2004 report, which the government has persistently refused to release.

Yet, following an explosion at the Briffa factory in 2000, the Cabinet regularised the position of the factories through a memo that rendered the road next to the factories a "private road", reserved exclusively for "farmers, residents and fireworks factory employees". This, according to an Ombudsman report which dealt with the matter, means the street in question is "used as irregularly as possible", making the factories legal.

When asked about the matter, the Office of the Prime Minister answered a number of questions regarding the regulation of fireworks but failed to comment on whether the Explosives Committee had been consulted.

Among other things, The Times asked why the explosives committee was not consulted and why the government was refusing to publish the 2004 report by the explosives committee.

The questions had been forwarded to the OPM after the Home Affairs Ministry, which is directly responsible for the sector, declined to comment on the memo.

The OPM defended its position on the basis of the Ombudsman's report, saying both factories were "operating according to law". Moreover, the OPM pointed out that the Ombudsman also recommended that the authorities consider a review of the existing legislation, stressing that a new pyrotechnics commission was set up last March solely to address this recommendation.

The commission is meant to make recommendations on how to improve on the safety of these factories.

The confidential 2004 report had proposed urgent measures to make fireworks production safer but, to date, no action is known to have been taken.

Residents living near the factories - including the owner of a villa that stands back to back with the factory where the explosion occurred - have now filed a judicial protest against the authorities and are threatening legal action.

The OPM said it could not reply to questions concerning its liability or otherwise arising from the recent explosion once a judicial protest had been filed.