A judge has upheld a request to block the renewal of a licence for a fireworks factory that lies adjacent to the site where the St Helen's Fireworks Factory in Gharghur exploded last year killing five people.

The request for a warrant of prohibitory injunction was part of a suit filed against the government by a number of people living close to the factories. They claim the government failed to protect them and their property from the obvious dangers posed by the proximity of these factories.

The Briffa fireworks factory, which was left standing after the blast, was in the process of having its licence renewed by the Police Commissioner.

However, Judge Geoffrey Valencia yesterday ruled there was enough prima facie evidence to suggest that the factory presents a "real risk to the life and property" of the residents and upheld their request to block the licence renewal process.

"It appears from past experience and even more recent experience that the precautions taken by the authorities, especially when considering where the factory is located, are not enough," the judge said, pointing out that there had been three explosions and deaths over the past years.

The Briffa factory stands less than 100 metres away from a nearby house which was built much earlier than the two factories, and less than 50 metres from the road that connects Naxxar and Ta' l-Ibrag.

The law regulating fireworks factories, the Explosives Ordinance, states that there must be a 183-metre safety buffer from any inhabited place or street that is "used regularly".

However, after an explosion at the Briffa factory in 2000, which also caused partial explosions at St Helen's, the Cabinet intervened and regularised the position of the factories through a memo that rendered the street next to the factories "private", reserved exclusively for "farmers, residents and fireworks factory employees".

This, according to an Ombudsman report which dealt with the matter, means that the street in question is "used as irregularly as possible", making the factories "legal".

Had the legal situation remained as it was, the Ombudsman's report had noted, "the authorities responsible for licensing the firework factories... would risk falling foul of the Explosives Ordinance... "

A woman who was driving past the St Helen's factory when it exploded on June 27 had a close shave when the roof of her car was ripped off.

The judge turned down two other requests for prohibitory injunctions to be issued, a first against the Briffa factory in case it applies for a permit to rebuild a part of the factory that had been damaged and a second against the St Helen factory in case they applied for a fresh permit.

In both cases, the judge pointed out that since no such applications had been filed, he could not accept the requests.

The case is being presented by lawyers Stefan Camilleri and Lennart Depasquale, on behalf of some 33 residents. They are suing, among others, the Prime Minister, the Home Affairs Minister and the Police Commissioner.

mmicallef@timesofmalta.com