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General accident information
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| Class/Quality |
* * * |
| Year |
2003 |
| Summary |
Gunpowder room at small illegal
Fireworks factory exploded destroying
The gunpowder room and causing
1 casualty |
| Country |
M |
| Activity |
USE/APPLICATION |
| Location |
FACTORY |
| Chemicals |
Firework, Gunpowder |
| Cause |
Management-failure |
| Fatalities/Injuries |
1 / 1 |
| Occurrences or events |
Blow-away, Collapse/Destroy, Explosion, Explosion,
Management-failure, Smoke-emission |
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Full accident information
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Click here to view a document containing the full accident information
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Country: MALTA (M)
Date : 2003 0424
At about 1300 hours, 2 explosions were heard in the area around a small illegal fireworks factory. A 50-year-old man carrying out maintenance works on a vehicle, died in the explosion which destroyed the small illegal fireworks factory.
The small illegal fireworks factory was located in front of another fireworks plant.
A large quantity of smoke covered the quarry where the factory was situated and the area around it. The explosion completely destroyed the gunpowder room.
The police, the civil protection department and the Armed Forces arrived on the spot soon after together with a number of ambulances.
A search was immediately launched and about 1/hour later the body of the 50-year-old man was recovered from the quarry.
The man's corpse could not be extracted immediately since there were various small explosions following the incident. Members of the bomb disposal unit then hauled out the body from beneath the rubble the chain of explosions subsided, an hour later.
The man had gone to the site to carry out some maintenance works on a car, and had not gone with the intention to work in the fireworks factory. Hence it is not believed that he was inside the factory at the time of the explosion.
It was suspected that the man was hit by pieces of debris as a result of the tremendous explosion.
The explosion was so strong that the blast even demolished part of a small room at a working place in a nearby quarry.
A 56-year-old man was fined 5000 M Lm after he was found guilty of the involuntary murder of another man, who had died in the explosion at the fireworks factory.
The man was found guilty of allowing unlicensed and illegal manufacturing of fireworks that led to the death of the 50-year-old man.
The victim had died after being hit by a hard object in the explosion.
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