Għarb residents yesterday voted in a referendum against allowing new fireworks factories in the vicinity of the small village. The no vote amounted to 60 per cent.

The referendum came after a factory explosion in the village on September 5 killed six people, five of whom were members of the same family and sparked a debate over a permit request for another factory.

Since the majority of councillors also sat on the festivities committee they felt they had a conflict of interest, so they opted for a referendum, Għarb mayor David Apap had said.

“Għarb is being used as a base for fireworks factories and this is unacceptable for the health and safety of our residents,” the council had said.

September’s disaster at the Farrugia Brothers Fireworks factory was the worst since seven servicemen died on a patrol boat as it was sailing off Comino to dump fireworks into the sea 26 years ago.

However, this latest tragedy was compounded by the fact that an entire family was practically wiped out in the blast.

Nenu Farrugia, 67, owner of the factory, his sons Raymond, 38 and Noel, 31, daughter-in-law Antoinette, 27, and son-in-law Peter Paul Micallef, 35, all died in the powerful explosion, along with family friend Jean Pierre Azzopardi of Xewkija.

Besides a Magisterial inquiry and a police investigation, a special board of inquiry was set up to look into the blast - which remains unexplained to date. However, neither of these probes has so far reached any public conclusions.