A 79-year-old man man was critically injured this afternoon in a fire at his house in Mqabba. The police are investigating a possible link with the manufacture of fireworks

Nicholas Ghigo, who in the past was involved in the manufacture of fireworks, suffered burns to his hands and several parts of his body and was rushed to hospital after managing to run from his house to the nearby police station.

Informed sources said he may have been mixing chemicals used in ground fireworks.

Neighbours said they had heard the sound of a small explosion, a fact confirmed by the police.

However the victim's son, Michael, said the fire appeared to have started on a carpet and spread to the kitchen. He was alerted to the blaze by neighbours and managed to put it out himself - using his experience as a fire-fighter. It was only later that he learnt that his father had gone to the police station. He repeatedly stressed that his father suffers from dementia.

Rescuers from the Civil Protection Department as well as soldiers from the Explosives Ordnance Disposal Unit and chemicals experts Alfred Vella were also on the scene.

Nicholas Ghigo has been passionate about fireworks since his childhood and was badly burnt while mixing colours in 1975.

"I had burns on 32 per cent of my body," he said in 2007 when he spoke about that incident.