Leonard Camilleri was standing just outside the workshop of the St Joseph Fireworks Factory, where he had been building a petard, when he noticed a spark inside the room and ran for his life.
Both Mr Camilleri and Mr Mizzi were licensed to make fireworks
An explosion followed but Mr Camilleri, the licence holder of the Kirkop factory, got away with a slight injury to his right arm, his friend Angelo Schembri said.
The accident took place yesterday morning at about 11 a.m. Mr Camilleri was the only person injured.
Another man, Jesmond Mizzi, was in one of the factory’s stores at the time. He did not suffer any injures since all six rooms making up the factory are built at a safe distance from each other, according to Mr Schembri, the secretary of the St Joseph Musical Society, which owns the factory.
Mr Schembri was standing in the road leading to the factory, together with other members of the society, who gathered there after the explosion.
They spoke about the “shock” they got when they initially heard about the explosion. They headed straight to the factory where they were relieved to hear no one was seriously injured.
The members could not access the factory since it was cordoned off by police while court-appointed experts analysed the scene as part of a magisterial inquiry. Earlier on, members of the bomb disposal unit cleared the area.
Mr Schembri said the factory was not extensively damaged. One of the walls of the workshop collapsed but there was no great financial loss. This was because the workshop only contained the items needed to build the petard Mr Camilleri was working on.
He pointed out that both Mr Camilleri and Mr Mizzi were licensed to make fireworks. The men were at the factory working towards the upcoming April fireworks’ symposium and for the feast of St Joseph celebrated in July. Civil Protection Department director Patrick Murgo confirmed that the only damage consisted of the collapsed wall. Investigations were being carried out to determine what had caused the blast, he said.
Yesterday’s near miss was the first fireworks accident of the year. Last December an independent inquiry warned that Malta would experience at least one large-scale fatal fireworks accident this year or in 2013. The inquiry, headed by Prof. Alfred Vella, stressed the urgency of amending fireworks regulations and banning certain chemical mixtures.
Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici had opened the inquiry for public consultation before calling a stakeholder conference to establish which measures to adopt. The consultation period is still ongoing.