Four of the five men who died after the St Helena fireworks factory blew up on Wednesday evening, have not yet been identified and DNA tests will have to be carried out before a funeral ceremony is held, sources close to this newspaper said.

Although word spread on Friday that the victims’ funeral would be held tomorrow, it was later confirmed that the funeral would be held at a later stage, possibly not before six weeks time, so that the victims’ identities could be verified.

Only the first victim – Sunny Borg, 43, from Birkirkara – who was lifted from the wreckage of the fireworks factory, was identified by members of the search and rescue operation.

Two shuddering blasts were heard at about 6pm and several smaller explosions that kept occurring until the following afternoon, completely destroyed the factory, which was located in a disused quarry in an area known as Ix-Xwieki, limits of Gharghur.

One man – Joe Bonello – was lucky enough to escape, although he is currently recovering from burns that wounded 15 per cent of his body surface. Five other men who were at the factory at the time of the blasts - Carmel Farrugia, Paul Bonnici, Richard Cardona and Vincent Galea – were unaccounted for until search and rescue personnel located their bodies during a long 15-hour operation.

The search and rescue operation could not begin on Wednesday evening due to the danger posed by the small, but still dangerous explosions. The search actually began on Thursday morning and Mr Borg’s body was the first to be found.

Another body was lifted from the quarry at about 4.45pm, but the search was later postponed until the following morning, since the site was still considered to be rather dangerous for the search and rescue team to continue the operation at night. The three other bodies were located on Friday morning.

Meanwhile, the organising committee of St Helena’s feast in Birkirkara, which was scheduled for 19 August, met on Saturday to plan funeral arrangements for the five men, but no date has yet been set. As expected, the village’s external feast has been cancelled.

The St Helena fireworks factory does not belong to any of the band clubs, but it is independent. According to sources, no fireworks were expected to feature in this year’s feast due to a dispute regarding a field from where fireworks were normally let off.

An agreement had only been reached about two months ago, so the fireworks enthusiasts had not yet prepared enough fireworks.

Production of fireworks was in full swing and many commented that it was surprising that the accident did not claim the lives of any of the many other enthusiasts who were giving a helping hand.