‘We called his name... but nobody answered’

When Frances heard the fireworks blast on Sunday she immediately ran to the roof of her house fearing the worst for her brother. She checked the direction of the plume of smoke and her heart stopped. It came from the San Dimitri area in the outskirts of Għarb where her brother George Gatt owned a fireworks factory. Wearing black and holding back tears, she recalls the horrendous moments upon arriving on the site where her brother’s factory once stood. “We arrived before the ambulance. There was smoke and fire. We started calling George’s name but nobody answered,” she says. Frances, 47, is the youngest of six siblings. George, 55, had meals at her house almost every day and Sunday was no exception. “At noon he was eating and joking around the table at my house. After lunch he dashed towards the main door, like he always did, and that is the last we saw of him.” Almost three hours later George was buried under the rubble after two powerful blasts flattened the first three rooms of the factory. Three other men, including his close friend Peppi Cini from Fontana, died in the explosion. In the evenings George and Peppi often discussed fireworks on the doorstep. “What an ugly way to...