‘Environmental disaster’: MPs demand investigation after Marsa scrapyard inferno
Rebekah Borg and Adrian Delia point at long-standing enforcement failures
Updated 6.25pm
The massive fire at the Marsa scrapyard has prompted calls for an independent investigation with the Shadow Minister for the Environment pointing at long-standing problems at the site.
As emergency services wrapped up an intensive 24-hour operation to fully quell the fire at JAC Steel Ltd in Triq Garibaldi, Rebekah Borg and Shadow Minister for Finance Adrian Delia called for an investigation into what they described as an “environmental disaster”.
“I will continue insisting on timely and transparent enforcement,” Borg said.
Meanwhile police have confirmed that a magisterial inquiry and a police investigation are underway.
Replying to questions by Times of Malta, a police spokesperson said that "police investigations regarding yesterday's fire, together with a magisterial inquiry are ongoing, hence at this stage it wouldn’t be prudent to divulge further information."
The environment shadow minister insisted on the eventual findings of an independent inquiry to be published and for air-quality data to be released highlighting the fact that residents in surrounding areas “are currently breathing in toxins”.
Borg added any gaps in enforcement or coordination should be identified and addressed, and that concrete lessons must be drawn to prevent similar incidents.
In a Facebook post, Borg said she had raised several parliamentary questions about the scrapyard noting that since 2016 it had been subject to a long list of issues, administrative fines and Stop and Compliance Orders.
She questioned whether authorities had acted on these concerns and whether the scrapyard had respected its permitted limit of 49 tonnes of hazardous waste, a limit that had been exceeded in the past.
The MP also highlighted that the environmental permit approved in 2023 required the implementation of fire-safety measures, following a previous blaze at the same facility in 2021, and called on the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) to clarify whether these measures were ever put in place.
Delia echoed Borg’s call for an investigation, insisting that “we cannot continue risking the lives of law enforcement officers and the health of the public because of others’ shortcomings.”