Lija’s award-winning St Michael’s Fireworks Club has warned that next August’s feast pyrotechnic display will not take place unless the club receives supplies of two vital chemicals by mid-November.

We’ve been waiting two years for this blessed law

The club’s access to potassium chlorate (putassa) and nitrate (nitrat) has been blocked by the Armed Forces, because of concerns that St Michael’s original storage facility on the limits of Naxxar is too close to populated areas for safety.

But club members have said that for the past two years they have been paying for a remote facility in Salini and storing their fireworks there, in anticipation of legal amendments which would regulate fireworks storage.

Those amendments were presented to Parliament in late October and must be debated and voted on before they come into effect. Parliament approved a second reading of the amendments just last week.

“We’ve been waiting two years for this blessed law and nothing’s happened,” said club secretary Joseph Mangion, who said that the committee had done all it could to ensure compliance.

“We knew about the proximity issue, which is why we had decided to reach into our own pockets and pay for an external storage facility ourselves two years ago,” he said.

Any hauling of fireworks to the club’s Salini storage facility was always insured and accompanied by an official police escort, he said.

Next August’s fireworks display was now in serious jeopardy, Mr Mangion warned. “Parts of next year’s display have already been ruined, and unless we can start working by mid-November the entire display will probably not happen.”

He insisted this was not hyperbole, arguing that delaying the manufacture of fireworks any later would lead to rushed processes and unacceptable margins of error, compromising people’s safety.

Club members told The Sunday Times they were at a loss to explain why the Armed Forces had suddenly decided to block their access to potassium chlorate and nitrate.

An AFM spokesman said that discussions between the army – which controls and distributes supplies of the chemicals to fireworks manufacturers – and St Michael’s club were under way, but did not go into any further detail.

Meanwhile, the club disassociated itself from petition in its favour doing the rounds on Facebook and in a statement issued by club lawyer Edward Zammit Lewis warned it would take legal action if necessary.

The petition disappeared a few hours later. “Its intention was positive, but we don’t need that sort of help. We can sort out the problem ourselves, and we don’t want anything to compromise our discussions with the authorities,” Mr Mangion said.

A Home Affairs Ministry spokesman did not reply to a request for an official comment on the matter.

Meanwhile, club members insist that the time to find a solution to the current impasse is quickly running out.

Just a few more weeks, they warn, and Lija’s 2013 festive firecrackers will turn out to be damp squibs.

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