Għaxaq fire kills rabbits, destroys boats, hay

Firemen fought for hours on Sunday night to control a raging fire in Għaxaq that destroyed two cabin cruisers, ruined a three-storey haystack and killed scores of rabbits.

Yesterday morning, the owners of the two luxurious boats looked at the smouldering remains with red-rimmed eyes, devastated by their loss. The boats had been all set to take to the water in only a few days' time.

Just a few metres away, cows mooed from behind an iron gate - the fire had not reached their pen.

But dozens of rabbits were not so lucky. Witnesses described their squealing as they died burned or asphyxiated in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The alarm was raised by Domenica Caruana at around 1 a.m. She and her five-year-old granddaughter had been asleep in her farmhouse only a few steps away from the bales of hay which caught fire.

"I got up and saw the blaze from my window," a still-shocked Mrs Caruana told The Times.

Firemen from the Civil Protection Department emptied a nearby well in their attempt to put out the fire, which devastated an area opposite Scotts Supermarket.

Although originally owned by one family, this piece of land and its buildings had been rented out to different people for a multitude of purposes including storage and farming.

The two boats destroyed in the fire were a Maxum owned by George Caruana and a Bayliner owned by Joe Mamo.

Mr Caruana spoke of his devastation at seeing his "baby" burn down during the night. "We had been working on them since February, polishing them and preparing them so that we could enjoy the sea for two months in the summer," he said, adding that the owners of three boats kept there had become "like family".

The third boat might also have been destroyed had not its owner made the most of the beautiful weather and taken it down to the water on Saturday afternoon.

Questions have been asked about whether the fire may have been sparked by a piece of firework - let off during the Għaxaq festa - that drifted over and fell onto the hay. Although hay fires are not uncommon, and can ignite from within a bale due to fermentation, the mountain of hay looked like it had started to burn from the outside, sources at the scene said.

A magisterial inquiry has been instituted as the police investigate the incident.

Last Tuesday fire destroyed two vans and bales of hay in a field in Burmarrad.