Firemen and Easygas workers lined the perimeter of the gas cylinder storage plant in Luqa yesterday and fired water into the blaze that had caught hold in a neighbouring field.

Civil Protection Department director Patrick Murgo said it started as a grass fire and soon spread, surrounding the storage plant on three sides – the fourth side being the road.

Fire fighters took up defensive positions along the sides of the plant and sprayed water at the flames to ensure they did not enter the gas-filled area, Mr Murgo said.

In turn, Easygas employees sprayed water on to the small gas cylinders using special equipment, while the large ones had a sprinkling system that was triggered by the heat, an eyewitness said.

Easygas managing director Rueben Farrugia said the fire never entered the storage facility. Trained staff had all the necessary fire-fighting equipment at hand and helped members of the Civil Protection Department control the flames.

The company’s trucks were driven out as a precaution but there was no need to remove the cylinders themselves, he said.

This is the third big grass fire in the past two months. On Tuesday a farmer had to evacuate his wheelchair-bound son and animals from his farm in Tal-Ħandaq when a grass fire at a nearby shooting range ignited tyres that let off thick, black smoke as they burned.

Last month. flames engulfed the backyard of the Foster Clark factory in San Ġwann. The blaze intensified as wooden and plastic pallets in the yard caught fire and cylinders containing the flammable chemical acetylene exploded.

No one was hurt in any of the fires.