Yesterday, Wednesday 12th March 2008, will be etched in my mind for the rest of my life.

I started off the day normally. I woke up at 7:00am, got ready for another day and 15 minutes later, I left home on my way to the usual spot where my friend picks me up. By 7:45am I was at JC so I spent a couple of minutes talking with my friends until it was time for my English lecture to commence..

After the lecture, I had 2 hours free, so I went to the "lighthouse", the one I talked about in the "Ta' Xbiex" post. Of course, when you're having fun (or rather, dozing off watching the blue skies), time seems to pass more quickly, than, let's say, 2 hours of maths.

Anyway, my time at JC was over soon, so I headed to the bus stop with my friend to head back to Naxxar. You're probably asking what's so "out-of-the-ordinary" about all this, that I will remember for the rest of my life? Nothing up to this point. However things start to unravel when the bus, number 59, stopped near the bus stop. Together with my friend, I proceeded to board the bus, ready with the small change to pay the fare. When I said "ghan-Naxxar, buli" (which translates roughly to: "to Naxxar, mate") the bus driver told me he can't go through Naxxar because the main road is closed so he'll have to go through the outskirts.. I told him "It's ok, I'll walk".. There's nothing I can do about it and there's no point in arguing..

When we finally found a seat and settled down, we started discussing what might be the reason why the main road is closed.. Maybe there's some "high-ranking" person such as the president or prime minister.. or maybe because they're working on the road.. but that was unlikely because we've just gone through the election hype.. so if they had to work on the road, they would have done it before the election. And the list goes on.. it never occured to me that it was much more serious than that.

When we finally reached the outskirts of Naxxar, we got off the bus and started walking.. I saw a friend of a friend and he said "something exploded" and I replied "cool" thinking that it was only something minor and taking into consideration that in Malta very few serious cases happen in years..

We reached a point where everyone went along his way on his own. As I started approaching the center of Naxxar, it was evident something really serious did happen. The first thing I saw was two huge Italian trucks (probably from the army/military) and a policemen on a motorbike.. Then, I started smelling something which I usually associate with the summer feasts.. fireworks. When I approached part of the road where you can see a couple of hundred meters ahead in a straight line, I could see a lot of people buzzing around, and even more noticeable was the apparent cloud of smoke which hindered the visibility.

I started to increase my pace so that I can reach the end of the road, where most people where. When I finally did, I started asking myself what could have gone so wrong? There was a lot of policemen, firemen and rescue workers, bomb disposals unit, ambulances and nurses, amongst journalists and locals. The locals where looking shocked, some with their eyes watering, some looking really worried. I spotted my father together with a couple of his friends and I asked him what's the buzz all about. He told me "tar garaxx mimli murtali u gholla kull m'hawn" (which translates to: "a garage full off petards blew up). I can honestly say that I was taken aback by the news. I wasn't expecting such an answer. No wonder everyone was looking so intense and worried. Then I asked him if anyone was injured and he told me 3 are injured and 2 are dead. Yeah I wasn't expecting that either. I thought I was in Baghdad for a moment, not a couple of meters away from home.

As the news started sinking in, I learned that some really wise guy was storing (and working on) petards in his garages (3 in total.. only 1 blew up fortunately) illegally.. With the explosion, 3 houses were demolished, nearby cars where practically wrecked and a lot of facades where screwed up too with debris.. Windows were smashed with the blast..

Pictures of this can be found here. Articles on this disaster can be found here and here.