Updated Sunday 1pm -

Firefighters were called to Manoel Island on Saturday night after stray fireworks sparked three fires on the island.

Photos sent to Times of Malta revealed swathes of the northern part of the island – one of the last remaining green lungs in the densely populated north harbour area – in flames.

A Civil Protection Department spokesman told Times of Malta that they had dispatched three units to the area after receiving reports of a fire at some time after 10.30pm.

The fire was caused by stray fireworks, the spokesman said.

On Sunday, the Environment Authority said the fire did not cause major damage to the area’s vegetation. Experts noted that acacia trees that were scorched along with seasonal vegetation that does not classify as protected flora.

The flames broke out in three places, spread across three hectares of land. They did not cause considerable damage to the biodiversity of the site, the authority said. 

One of the areas scorched on Manoel Island. .

It appears to be the second time in two days that vegetation on Manoel Island has caught fire: a Facebook post uploaded on July 4 to a local Facebook group showed a similar blaze burning on the island. 

A Facebook post uploaded on Thursday night also complained about a fire in the area.

Manoel Island is poised to be transformed by a mega-development featuring hundreds of apartments, retail outlets, a yacht marina, hotel and 80,000 square metres of parks and family areas, after authorities approved plans for the area earlier this year.

Busy summer for firefighters

Saturday's Manoel Island blaze caps a busy day for the CPD’s firefighting division: a fire inside an Qawra storeroom was still being put out at the time of writing, around 14 hours after it was first noticed at 9.30am.

Late last month, the CPD was also involved in another large-scale outdoor firefighting operation, when a grass fire in Miżieb engulfed around a third of the northern woodland, destroying an estimated 4,600 trees.

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From fireworks to fire%3A a Times of Malta reader shared these before-and-after images of the incident.

A wider angle of the affected area.