A pharmaceutical company today was ordered to pay more than €230,000 to an insurance firm and an asphalting company that had lost equipment in a 2009 explosion in Bulebel.

Crystal Pharma was ordered to pay €47,277.79 to Asfaltar Ltd and €186,475 to Elmo Insurance, which had insured the Bulebel-based company.

The incident took place on 3 March 2009 when a contractor was carrying out works at the Crystal Pharma plant, which is situated in the Zejtun industrial estate.

The work involved the installation of a metal grate on top of a sump that was connected to a nearby reservoir. The grate needed some alterations and the workers started cutting parts of it with a chaser on site. Sparks flew into the sump, where chemicals caught fire. The flames spread to the reservoir, resulting in an explosion. Machinery belonging to Asfaltar Ltd was destroyed in the blaze.

The court, presided over by Mr Justice Mark Chetcuti, said that while the explosion was caused by the contractor, the blame lay with the pharma company. While operations had not yet started at the newly constructed factory, the company had taken over site security after a handover process. The company was therefore solely responsible for site security.

The people responsible for the company, the court said, knew that tests involving the chemical Heptane were being carried out and that the substance was highly flammable. The chemical did not mix with water and settled on the surface. No danger signs had been set up near the sump.

The court said Crystal Pharma should have exercised a higher level of diligence at a time when works were ongoing.

While the contractor, Rite Decor, had been fined by the Occupational Health and Safety Authority for not carrying out a risk assessment, the court felt that this was not enough to find it responsible for civil damages.