Xewkija yesterday bade farewell to fireworks fanatic Jean Pierre Azzopardi, 27, who lived for the village feast and died doing what he loved.
He was the first of the six victims of the devastating Għarb fireworks factory explosion to be buried after succumbing to the September 5 blast that rocked the island, wrecking almost an entire family and leaving a trail of mourners in its wake.
The funeral of Mr Azzopardi, a long-time friend of the factory owners, the Farrugia family, which lost five members in the tragedy, started with a cortege up Independence Street to his hometown’s parish church.
Hundreds of mourners followed the coffin, carried by his friends from the Xewkija fireworks committee and accompanied by the Prekursur Band – everything he adored.
A picture featuring Mr Azzopardi carrying a petard, superimposed on an image of the façade of the parish church, surrounded by fireworks and the image of Jesus, was carried by one of his cousins.
Once in St John the Baptist Square, the cortege was joined by his grieving parents, who entered a packed church, passing between members of the Red Cross. One of Mr Azzopardi’s three siblings, his sister Anna, forms part of the Gozo branch and had arrived on the scene of the explosion on duty in an ambulance.
The blast at the Farrugia Brothers Fireworks Factory killed its owner, Nenu Farrugia, his two sons Raymond and Noel, his daughter-in-law Antinette, and his son-in-law Peter Paul Micallef.
Present at the Mass were the few remaining forlorn members of the Farrugia family, barring the mother, Maria, who has been left to mourn the devastating loss with one daughter and a daughter-in-law, both widowed through the explosion, and her fatherless grandchildren.
Raymond’s wife, Tiberia, and their 11-year-old son, Luca, one of two, and Marcelline, Nenu’s daughter, and wife of Peter Paul Micallef, courageously attended the funeral before that of their own relatives in Fontana today.
President George Abela, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, Labour Party deputy leader Anġlu Farrugia and other members of both political parties were present for the concelebrated Mass, led by the victim’s uncle, Fr Francis Azzopardi.
He recalled how enthusiastic his “smiling” nephew was about fireworks, as were his uncles, saying he warned him to be careful but never to stop as that would have been a waste of time.
“He found himself in fireworks,” Fr Azzopardi told the congregation, while a message from Gozo Bishop Mario Grech from Jerusalem, read out by the Xewkija parish priest, encouraged hope in view of eternal life.
Poems recited by family and friends, representing the various associations Mr Azzopardi was active in, and highlighting his involvement in anything related to the feast, including the band club, local theatre and carnival, stimulated applause from the mourners and moved them to tears.
As is typical of Xewkija funerals, every member of the congregation walked up to kiss the cross on the coffin and Mr Azzopardi’s parents crossed the aisle to embrace the widows in an emotional moment that witnessed the unity of the two families in their loss and suffering.
The members of the Farrugia family exited discreetly from the back of the church while the cortege proceeded to the Xewkija cemetery to lay Mr Azzopardi to rest.
Outside, a distraught uncle, who needed a breath of air, said that, for Mr Azzopardi, “voluntary work was more important than his own job”. His nephew had even plastered the church façade, he said, gazing up at the dome.
Mr Azzopardi’s burial was originally meant to be held on Friday but his remains, and those of Noel Farrugia, could not be identified during the post mortem due to the severity of their burns. They were thought to have been closest to the site, where the first of the three powerful explosions ripped through the sister island at 6.10 p.m., causing complete devastation on site.
The bodies of the six victims were eventually released for burial after conclusive DNA results were obtained on Sunday.
The joint funeral of the other five victims, originally scheduled for Saturday, was postponed to today at 3.30 p.m.
The explosion was caused by fireworks intended for the celebrations of the Xagħra feast, reigniting controversy on the dangerous manufacture of pyrotechnics and resulting in a government-appointed board of inquiry to investigate the quality of chemicals and practices used in their production.
The same factory had exploded five years ago but no one was hurt and it had been rebuilt. The blast on that fateful Sunday, the eighth in a year, however, left the highest number of victims in the history of fireworks factory disasters. Fireworks-related deaths have claimed 24 lives in Gozo, according to records.