Sandra Bartolo, 33, who late on Friday was burnt by ground fireworks in Għaxaq, has described how she was watching the display from a safe distance with her five-year-old daughter when she was hit by a flying piece of burning wood.

"I didn't see anything, but suddenly my hair was on fire. My instinct was to push my daughter away and I went running into the crowd in panic - bystanders were trying to extinguish the flame with their drinking water," she said.

Stretched out on her bed with her right arm resting on a pillow, Ms Bartolo was still trying to come to terms with what happened in St Philip Square just before midnight during the celebrations to mark Għaxaq's feast of Santa Maria.

Shifting slightly, she tries to find a comfortable position so that her taut burnt skin would not be stretched. Moving her neck is painful, despite the morphine, and the fan circulating hot air does little to cool her down.

Her hair is pulled back exposing a patch of singed hair and a sizeable piece of gauze covers the whole of her right shoulder where the burning wood landed, and the skin around her neck looks like one angry blister.

Recounting what happened, the young woman from Gudja said she had stayed on to watch to the colourful display of ground fireworks (ġigġifogu) with her daughter.

The feast, renowned for its award-winning pyrotechnics, had attracted a large crowd and unable to see from where she was standing Ms Bartolo tried to move closer, but was still more than 50 metres away from the circling wheels of fire.

She was wearing a spaghetti-strapped top, which meant her skin was perfectly exposed to the smouldering block of fire that had got dislodged from the Catherine wheel. Her silver necklace with an ‘S' charm was also blackened and got stuck to her skin.

Her daughter was unhurt but she got trampled in the panic before being rescued by her aunt.

"I was going mad and the burning sensation would just not go away," she said.

Her sister-in-law rushed her to Mater Dei Hospital's emergency where she was treated immediately and kept overnight in case of swelling.

Ms Bartolo was discharged yesterday morning, but she has to stay toing and froing to hospital every day for the next 10 days so that her dressing is changed and her wound is examined.

She believes more precautions and safety guards should be in place to protect the crowds whenever the ground fireworks are lit. She also plans to sue the firework makers.

"It's true, a feast is nothing without fireworks, but there is no sense of professionalism and it's a surprise not more people get hurt - extremes are bad. There are no barriers and I believe something has to be done to protect the crowd from getting hurt," she insisted.

She hoped the incident will push authorities into implementing stricter regulations to avoid similar situations. In the meantime, she planned to steer clear of ground fireworks, but her scars would not be as easy to erase.

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