'Don't talk to me about my birthday': Orietta Berti recalls Salina blast ordeal
Italian singer says hotel windows shattered after fireworks factory explosion on the morning of her 83rd birthday in Malta
Beloved Italian singer Orietta Berti has recalled being woken up in Malta on her birthday by the blast of the fireworks factory explosion in Salina on June 1.
In a television interview, the veteran singer recounted the extraordinary events of the morning of her 83rd birthday which she celebrated in Malta after she had just given a concert at the Mediterranean Conference Centre the night before.
“Don’t talk to me about my birthday,” she told Rai Uno presenter Caterina Balivo on her programme “La Volta Buona” earlier this week.
Berti said “all the windows of the hotel were shattered” in the blast and she had to walk down six flights of stairs to the lobby where she and fellow guests had to stand around “for three hours”.
Later that day she was due to fly out of Malta and her driver had to take a one hour and 15 minute “detour around the other side of the island” to the airport.
The Italian singer’s misadventures did not end there. Once she arrived in Rome’s Fiumicino airport where she caught a connecting flight, her luggage failed to show up.
“It contained all my wigs, my high heeled shoes, my make-up, everything,” Berti said.
The suitcase eventually made it home “seven days later”.
“I had to do a video the next day which was a holiday so I could not go out and buy more make-up. I simply kept my make-up on for three days,” she said in her characteristic dry humour.
The Lourdes Fireworks Factory was completely decimated in a spectacular explosion that registered 1.9 on the Richter scale and scattered stones and debris across a wide area. Properties as far as two kilometres away sustained damage and several animals were killed.
Investigations into the cause of the blast continue as inquiring magistrate Joe Mifsud visited the site on Thursday morning.