Enemalta rebuts claims made by owners of garage which allegedly caught fire by smart metre

Enemalta has rebutted claims made by two garage owners in Iklin by hinting that the fire in the property could have been caused by tampering with smart metres or by overloading of the mains, possibly due to faulty wiring.

On Tuesday, a father and a son, owners of a garage in Iklin, filed a judicial letter requesting compensation amounting to €26,000 from Enemalta as they are holding the company responsible for a fire which destroyed their property.

Augustine Bonnici, 62, and his son Roderick, 32, from Iklin, presented the judicial letter before the First Hall of the Civil Court claiming damages from Enemalta, the Police Commissioner, Attorney General, the Minister of Justice and ARMs limited.

In their claim, they explain how on 5 October 2016, their garage, situated in Guze Ellul Mercer Street caught fire. An expert had established that the fire started from a defective smart meter.

The garage was used by the father and his son as their secondary place of work as the two used to carry out some mechanical work part-time. Apart from tools and machinery, a car and two motorcycles, which were stored inside the garage, were completely destroyed by the fire.

The court heard how the value of the garage before the fire stood at €38,000, or some €43,000 if the machinery is included. However, they complained that the current value of the garage is zero as they cannot make any use of it.

In response, the electricity supplier said that it was surprised to see how the Bonnici’s concluded that the fire started by Enemalta’s electricity metre.

The company noted that the meter which allegedly caused the fire had been installed in 2012 and no faults were ever reported. It claimed that these metres are rigorously tested and that fires are usually caused by overloads or faulty wiring installations.

Enemalta then referred to possible action which the company might decide to take against the garage owners.