Residents in the Gharghur area are still waiting for compensation 18 months on from an explosion at a fireworks factory which damaged buildings and claimed five lives.

An abandoned and dilapidated farmhouse that was severely damaged during the explosion at St Helen's fireworks factory has been left untouched, and residents believe it will soon collapse onto the road unless action is taken soon.

Residents are also complaining that the explosion caused huge potholes in the road that have not been repaired.

Although they filed several complaints with the local council, residents believe that the buck has been passed to the Malta Transport Authority, which has still not taken any action.

"We have been literally forgotten since the explosion," one resident said.

The residents had sued the government, claiming it was ignoring the dangers posed by St Helen's factory as well as the neighbouring Briffa fireworks factory.

The legal team of the group of 33 residents had presented a judicial protest a few weeks after the blast, which had damaged a number of properties in the area. Court proceedings are ongoing.

St Helen's factory and the Briffa factory are situated 130 metres short of the legally recommended safe distance from public roads and inhabited areas. In their writ, residents argued that not only did the government fail to protect them from the obvious dangers posed by the proximity of these fireworks factories, but it actually went out of its way to accommodate them.

The Times had revealed last year that Cabinet had directly intervened in 2001 to bypass the regulations in a way that allowed both factories to remain open.

A woman who was driving past the St Helen's factory when it exploded in June 2007 had a close shave when the roof of her car was ripped off.

Properties belonging to other residents in the area sustained serious damage.