Watch: 'Major' fire in two Ħal Far factories extinguished after 16 hours

Updated Saturday 6.55pm

A "major" fire broke out at two factories in Ħal Far Industrial Zone on Friday evening with a thick black plume seen billowing across the sky from a certain distance over the South of Malta.

The fire had been brought under control by around 12.45am on Friday night and was extinguished by around 3am, the Civil Protection Department (CPD) said.

A CPD spokesperson told Times of Malta the fire had originated in a recycling store, but that the cause of the fire was not yet confirmed.

Large stores of refuse derived fuel (RDF) – produced by shredding non-recyclable combustile materials such as plastics, paper and cardboard – had caught fire, the spokesperson explained.

The site on Saturday morning after the fire had been extinguished. Photo: CPD/Facebook.

The RDF, stored in large bags and compressed cubes, provided challenges for firefighters, he explained, with water used to extinguish the blaze cooling and hardening the outside of the material, forming a hard shell and preventing water from reaching the inside of the material, which remained hot and risked fires reigniting.

Firefighters will need to return to the site for up to several weeks to continue treating the RDF material, he said.

The work of firefighters meant the adjacent BIM Ltd factory saw only superficial damage, a CPD spokesperson said. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli.

The spokesperson said around two-thirds of the recycling store had been saved, with fire that had spread to the adjacent metal coating factory operated by BIM Limited quickly extinguished, leaving it with superficial damage.

More than 80 firefighters, 10 senior officers and up to 20 fire engines attended the scene, with additional support provided by Malta International Airport firefighters,  Wasteserv - which povided water supplies - and the Water Services Corporation, which provided bowsers.

WasteServ's firefighting system was used to refill the equivalent of 45 fire engines with 500,000 litres of water during the night. 

WasteServ CEO Richard Bilocca said the incident provided "an excellent live drill for our firefighting team".

"We managed to import sufficient water into our system to keep our fire reservoir capacity cirtually intact by the end of the operation," Bilocca added.

While praising the CPD for their "bravery and professionalism", he said their ongoing support and training had been instrumental in developing WasteServ's firefighting readiness.

No injures were reported. 

Firefighters used some 900,000 litres of water during the 16 continuous hours fighting the blaze, the CPD said in a Facebook post Saturday.

Civil Protection Department officers at the site on Saturday morning. The blaze was extinguished at around 3am. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli.

NGOs including St John Ambulance and Rescue Malta also supported the operation.

Late on Friday night Edward Camilleri of steel manufacturer and design E&L Enterprises, one of the factories close to the fire, posted on social media "urgently" requesting water bowsers.

Writing on Facebook, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said: "I don't have enough words to thank our firefighters for their work even in the face of high temperatures. Thank you!"

A thick black plume of smoke could be seen from a distance as a fire raged in two factories in Ħal Far.