Action over fireworks awaits new proposals

The Government will be waiting for proposals from a consultative body on fireworks before moving to implement basic recommendations to improve safety that were made last December. “The Government will await the policy and legislative proposals forthcoming from the Explosives Committee before moving on to implementation stage,” a spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister – which is now responsible for fireworks – said. He was referring to the implementation of recommendations by an authoritative commission, appointed to make a comprehensive review of the industry’s practices. It followed the September 2010 explosion at the Farrugia Brothers factory in Għarb, which killed six people and practically wiped out an entire family. The commission report found that the local industry still used a number of dangerous chemical mixtures that were banned abroad because they are too volatile. The commission was chaired by chemistry professor Alfred Vella. Following yet another tragedy on Sunday, in which four people died in an explosion at the Qalb ta’ Gesù factory – only 500 metres away from the Farrugia Brothers factory – Prof. Vella and Prof. Victor Axiaq, a commission member, called...