The former director of Civil Protection was yesterday found to be responsible for the permanent disability suffered by a man who fell a height of two storeys while training as a fire fighter in Ħal Far 10 years ago.

Mr Justice Silvio Meli said the incident ought to cause the director to blush after it resulted that the barrier to the shaft, down which the trainee had fallen, was only installed after the accident had occurred.

Pierre Farrugia, a senior technician at ST Microelectronics, was awarded €73,240 in damages after suffering an eight per cent permanent disability. He was 29 at the time.

His training, along with that of other ST employees, was being carried out at the department’s fire grounds in March 2002.

They were assigned to the smoke house, a two storey building which was in pitch darkness and filled with smoke when a fire was lit.

The building was purpose built to feature hazards that would simulate the real dangers encountered in a fire.

Mr Farrugia testified that when he entered the smoke house the visibility was down to 20 centimetres. He passed through a doorway and fell down a two-storey shaft, landing on his right hand.

The director held that Mr Farrugia had veered away from the planned course and that he had removed the barrier guarding the shaft.

But the court concluded that the director’s assertion was totally contradicted by the evidence. The barrier was in fact a chain attached to both sides of the shaft. Representatives of ST who had inspected the barrier concluded that it had been installed after the accident. They even found dust still on site caused by drilling for the chain’s attachment.

This in itself should cause whoever was responsible to blush and rendered the director completely responsible for the accident, the court said.