10 explosions in 12 years: a timeline of fireworks factory blasts

2010: Five explosions

February 22, 2010: St Sebastian factory, Qormi

The explosion at the St Sebastian fireworks factory took place at 6.15pm, reports indicating it was heard over a wide area. 

According to a Times of Malta article, firework manufacturers were preparing fireworks for the feast of St Sebastian, celebrated in the third week of July, and for the St Publius ground fireworks festival in Floriana.

An avid fireworks enthusiast, Damian Agius, 21, and his fireworks “mentor”, Alfred Stellini, 46, died in the explosion. Their bodies were found underneath the concrete roof of the room they were working in.

Another five people were at the factory at the time of the explosion. A 38-year-old man suffered minor injuries, a 57-year-old man sustained slight injuries, and three men – aged 53, 36, and 29 – were unharmed.

An inquiry was launched by then-magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera, since promoted to judge.

 

April 16, 2010: San Bartolomeo factory, Għargħur

Two months after the blast at Qormi, another huge explosion took place at a fireworks factory, this time in Għargħur. 

The blast occurred at 3pm at the San Bartolomeo fireworks factory, where enthusiasts were preparing for the upcoming fireworks festival, and the blast was heard from as far as Marsascala, Żejtun and Birżebbuġa.

Two men, aged 44 and 47, both from Għargħur, rushed out of the room they were working in when they saw a fire burning inside. They managed to escape the explosion just in time.

The blast damaged houses in the vicinity, window panes were shattered and bits of burnt paper used to wrap fireworks were blown into surrounding fields.

The duty magistrate, Miriam Hayman, since promoted to judge, had opened an inquiry into the explosion.

May 4, 2010: St Catherine’s, Marsaxlokk/Tas-Silġ

The third victim of a fireworks explosion that year was John Abela, known as Ġanni s-Sagristan, from Żejtun, who died from severe burns he suffered in a powerful explosion at the St Catherine’s fireworks factory at Tas-Silġ.

He succumbed to his injuries in hospital four days after the explosion.

The 62-year-old was in the factory with another five people at the time of the blast, preparing fireworks for the Żejtun festa in June. Abela’s son, 39 at the time, Mario Farrugia, 29, Anthony Farrugia, 42, had escaped unharmed from the blast. 

A fifth man, Pierre Mifsud, 33, suffered from burns to his hand.

As a sign of respect, the Żejtun festa that year was cancelled.

It was reported that the blast could have been caused by a chemical reaction in the material Abela was mixing.

 

August 14, 2010: Mosta fireworks factory

A day before the Santa Marija festa, three massive explosions at the August 15 fireworks factory in Dwejra, the limits of Mosta, went off, destroying the factory and killing the one man working there on the day. 

Mario Dimech, 43, the secretary of his home town’s pyrotechnics society, was alone in the factory when hundreds of powerful ground and air fireworks exploded.

The series of blasts destroyed the factory and the thick protective blast walls that encircled the complex had disintegrated. The fireworks that exploded were stored outside the factory and were about to be taken into the firing area in a field on the outskirts of Mosta.

Members of the police, civil protection, the army and medical services had arrived within minutes of the blast but could not start a search before the fire was put out.

Initial reports had wrongly said three men had died in the explosion, but it later emerged that only one – Dimech – was missing.

That year, Mosta held off celebrating the feast of the Assumption and the only fireworks that were let off were dedicated to Dimech. The main square was stripped of all decorations, including the festoon. Flags and banners were flown at half-mast.

The cause of the explosion was never made public.

Magistrate Gabriella Vella launched an inquiry.

September 5, 2010: Għarb fireworks factory

On the afternoon of September 5, six lives were claimed at the Farrugia Brothers/Ta’Nenu fireworks factory blast in Għarb, Gozo, one of the worst firework factory disasters.

Nenu Farrugia, 67, owner of the factory, his sons Raymond, 38, and Noel,31, daughter-in-law Antoinette, 27, and son-in-law Peter Paul Micallef, 35, died in the powerful explosion, which also claimed the life of Jean Pierre Azzopardi of Xewkija.

The fireworks were reportedly being prepared for the feast of Our Lady of Victories in Xagħra.

Times of Malta reported that people from all over Gozo and the northern part of Malta described the explosion as an “earthquake”.

This was the second time the fireworks factory in Għarb exploded; the first occurred in 2005, when no one was injured, though eight of the 10 rooms had been wiped out.

2012: Two explosions

February 13, 2012: St Joseph’s firework factory, Kirkop/Safi

Two men were injured when an explosion blew the ceilings and walls off the Kirkop factory as they prepared fireworks in an adjacent room.

The men noticed something was wrong and ran away just in time, escaping serious injury. 

November 4, 2012: Qalb ta’ Ġesù fireworks factory, Għarb 

An explosion took place a few metres from the site of the September 2010 explosion. 

The November explosion flattened three rooms located close to each other and also demolished the roof of a room used to store some materials.

Four people had died in the blast, including factory owner Ġorġ Gatt, Peppi Cini, Mario Gauci, who reportedly was involved in another explosion a few years before, and 23-year-old Bryan Portelli.

2018: One explosion

May 26, 2018: Lourdes Factory in Naxxar/Salini

Emergency services had rushed to the factory site at around 2.15pm, after a blast left two people seriously injured, one of whom later succumbed to his injuries. 

Four others escaped with minor injuries and were treated by paramedics on site.

2022: Two explosions

June 4, 2022: Mosta fireworks factory 

The Mosta fireworks factory, which had left a victim in 2010 following an explosion, went up in flames 12 years later, leaving two people with injuries. 

The fireworks factory experienced two explosions that day, which were heard from several areas across Malta, as far away as Valletta. Eleven people were on site at the time of the explosion, and they all managed to avoid the worst.

The blast was later attributed to a lethal combination of temperature, humidity and wind direction by a pyrotechnics expert. 

November 26, 2022: San Ġużepp fireworks factory, Kirkop 

The second explosion that year was a fatal one, leaving one man dead and three injured following a series of blasts at the San Ġużepp fireworks factory in Kirkop.

The deceased, Leonard Camilleri, was a keen fireworks enthusiast and also served as the factory’s licensee for several years. He was one of the two men injured when a similar explosion blew ceilings and walls off the Kirkop factory back in February 2012.