August 15 Fireworks Factory gets permit to be built again

The fireworks factory in Dwejra (near Mosta) that was blown to smithereens last year, claiming a man’s life, is to be rebuilt after a planning permit was granted yesterday.

The August 15 factory on the outskirts of Mosta will be reconstructed on the same footprint with the addition of two rooms and an extra water reservoir for irrigation or fire fighting in case of an emergency.

The water facilities will be upgraded, trees replanted after being destroyed in last year’s incident and soil deposited to support the blast walls.

Sitting on the top of a hill and accessed by a country road off the main road leading to Mġarr, the factory was isolated in the middle of the countryside.

When consulted, the Civil Protection Department requested that the weaker walls of the rebuilt factory should face out towards the countryside and not residential areas so that most of the debris, in case of another explosion, would be flung away from houses.

Also, the roofs and doors of the sheds must be made of light materials that open outwards.

The planning authority’s environment unit noted that the new fireworks factory would not intensify the use of land and that the development would fall within the same footprint.

The factory was razed to the ground in August last year in three huge blasts that killed 43-year-old Mario Dimech of Mosta, who was the secretary of the pyrotechnics society which ran the factory.

The thick protective blast walls that encircled the entire complex were destroyed. A dense enclosure of trees that shielded the factory from sight was blown away and entire trees, burning branches and flaming fireworks were spat out into the surrounding fields.

The explosion, which sent thousands of euros worth of fireworks up in smoke instantaneously, sparked smaller fires on the hillside that burned for about two hours. The fireworks were ready to be transported closer to the centre of Mosta for the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady.