'Fireworks are my addiction... and we are all at God's mercy'

I have been creating fireworks for eight years and every time I hear about a factory explosion, my heart skips a beat. Maybe I would not know the person who would have lost his life, but in this area we are all like brothers.

We all feel for each other, we understand each other’s passions like no one else does. And the worst about it is that, when a life is lost in such a sudden and horrendous way, no one knows what could have caused it. We can only speculate on the number of probabilities of things which could have gone wrong. But nothing is definite.

People tell me that with pyrotechnics I am only opening the door to sure death. "There is nothing safe about it," my parents tell me. My own family and wife repeat to me all the time that I should stop and that this is all dangerous… that I am risking my life. When such tragedies occur, I end up thinking that maybe I should stop, that all this is a warning and next time it could be me.

But the moment a feast arrives, and we fire up our work and see the sky illuminated with colour, all my “bad” thoughts vanish. I bless all the work that we would have done. We feel pride in our work and it is that moment which prepares you. You feel the conviction within yourself to get ready for another year of work and prepare for next year’s feast.

For me pyrotechnics is a passion. Each one of us who does pyrotechnics is not there because he is forced to. It is something we do for a passion. Let me put it this way. Everyone knows that smoking is harmful and could lead to death. But people still smoke and they cannot stop, because of the habit… because of the addiction. And this is what it is for me. It is simply an addiction. An addiction which reaches its climax when we show off our work during the feast. The colours which illuminate the sky in a tradition which has been going on for generations is the injection I need to set me up for another year worth of hard work.

Personally, I have tried to stop going to the factory. But it is a fight… a continuous fight, and at the end it is that pull which wins.

I believe that we are all at God’s mercy. When these tragedies occur, people start protesting against pyrotechnics. What should we do then? Stop fireworks? People die because of traffic accidents. Should we stop driving cars then? People die when they are at their place of work. We should stop going to work?

The least we can do to safeguard our safety is pay attention to small details which seem frivolous but could cost us our lives. For example, it is important that we do not wear clothes made out of nylon as this material catches on fire quickly. We also make sure to keep our workplace as tidy and clean as possible. Cleanliness is an important factor as it creates a safe environment. We also try to avoid preparing the mixture in hot temperatures and southerly winds, as the mixture itself is unstable. In fact, that is why that most of the work is done during winter and in early morning hours, when the air is still cool.

Another safety precaution is that we make sure to leave our mobiles back in the kitchen. Mobiles emit radiation which could spark off the mixture. People working with pyrotechnics also make sure not to wear any gold jewellery or remove any plastic objects. Remember that it is the heat which sets up the mixture on fire.

Certain accidents occur for various reasons and it is hard to pinpoint actual factors. Sometimes it could be the mix of all the things, other times it could be nothing but something else external. The one thing which I deem the most important is being technical. If one is able to finish at a certain time, they should not try to hurry things up to increase his work. The time spent to hurry up could lead to fatalities.

A factor which could be creating serious hazards is the fact that nowadays many are downloading from the internet new recipes and try them out. Testing these recipes could be dangerous, as well as buying material which is not of the highest quality. This is why the Għaqda Piroteknika Maltija obliges all factories to register any new material with them.