 Right before we start, just a quick plug, I have some new t-shirts out on my Teespring store. It's been a couple of years since I've done some new designs, so if you fancy, check them out. It's a cold December afternoon in East Sussex. Emergency workers are exhausted, they've just witnessed destruction very few people will see in their lifetime. An industrial site has been decimated, making it look like a wall zone. But it's not ammunition nor fertilizer that's caused this, but something that brings joy and excitement to any festival or party, Bioworks, which is 2006 and a fireworks factory and storage site is the centre of this week's video. My name is John, and today we will be looking at the Mali Farm Disaster. Our story starts rather differently for this channel, with me searching on companies house. Basically for all you non-brits, it's the government organisation in charge of maintaining the register of all registered companies in the UK. Don't worry, this will have some relevance to our story. It is August 1997 and a new company has been vomited into existence, Sussex Fireworks and Displays Limited. It is owned by husband and wife Martin and Julie Winter. They own a farm and they are planning to use it as part of the manufacturer, storage and sale of fireworks. Their paperwork doesn't really end with just the incorporation documents, as this type of operation requires both trading standards and the health and safety executive to licence the production and sale of what are basically small colourful explosions. Now little information is known for the company operations before 2001, when it changed its name to Festival Fireworks Limited. Followed by a few months later, Martin and Julie incorporating a new company, Sussex Fireworks Displays Limited. This was to split the operations of manufacturer and sale into two distinct legal entities, which makes sense as it limits potential losses of one part of the operation. Mali Farm is a small industrial estate located on the road B2192 in between Ringma and Halland East Sussex, which is around here on a map, not too far from the Piltdown man's site. The surrounding area is mainly agricultural, with a few housing areas nearby. The winters, along with their son and daughter, lived on the site in a detached house and rather nicely even having their own pool. Also on site is a steel beam fabrication company, although the land was leased from the winters, the company had no real other affiliation with the family. In 2005 the laws regarding explosives and by extension fireworks were changed. This in theory would bring all operations of a site under one licence from the HSC. But there was a little bit of a grey area, that was the two companies. The winters had registered one for the sale and the other for the manufacturing of the fireworks. Because of this, the HSC were responsible for licensing the production and trading standards remained in charge of the sale, issuing a licence to be able to store up to 350kg of explosive material. In total around 21 tonnes of explosives were allowed to be on site. The HSC issued a licence in 2002 and was allowed to be carried over with the new legislation in 2005. But the HSC would undertake semi-regular inspections of the site, one of which would be in October 2006 and they found quite a few issues with the site. This included discrepancies between submitted building plans and actual buildings on site which resulted in reduced separation distances between the structures, poorly stored mixed glass fireworks, open and damaged boxes and on top of that no full inventory of stock on site was kept. The winters were ordered to take action on the raised issues by the 5th of January 2007. But spoiler alert, they wouldn't end up needing to do that. The disaster. It's the 3rd of December 2006 and Martin and his son Nathan Winter are loading up an ISO storage container with fireworks and bird scares. The metal container was due to be shipped to the Middle East. They had likely forgotten in the rush that the company had actually been booked for a Christmas light switch on events in Eastbourne. The client who had booked the company, understandably getting a bit worried that no one had arrived in the morning called festival fireworks at 1pm. For reference the event was due to start at 4.30pm. Anyways the company advised the organisers that they were just about to leave and they should be with them soon. Which is not particularly accurate as their vehicle wasn't fully loaded and the journey would be at least half an hour long in good traffic at roughly 16 miles. Now for the start of the disaster narrative I'm going to use Nathan Winter's statements to the police for reference but take them with a pinch of salt but we'll come along to that later on. Nathan had retrieved some fireworks from another farm site earlier in a transit van but this wasn't everything he needed. They needed to be made water resistant as just a little bit of dampness at the display site can properly bugger up the reliability of said fireworks going off. The solution is simple bin bags, wrap them up and they are pretty well protected from the English rain. He did the wood proofing in the van outside building D. Nathan next needed igniters. Luckily for him there were some leftovers from a previous display that had been left in a lorry on site, stored inside paintings which bizarrely were filled with nails. He then took the igniters and placed them on a box on the veranda of building D. Inside the building was many more already fused fireworks. During this time he picked up the loose fuses planning on putting them in a box when all of a sudden they started igniting. This was roughly between 1.30pm and 1.40pm. Nathan dropped the igniters which set off the fireworks on the veranda, spreading the flames to the van which also set off fireworks within. Witnesses would begin to hear explosions around 1.45pm and a few minutes later the first 999 calls came in, reporting of explosions and a fire at Marley Farm. It is roughly 2pm on Sunday the 3rd of December 2006. The firefighters are attending a fireworks fire on the Marley Farm Industrial Estate in East Sussex. Two trucks also known as appliances have been dispatched as part of a predetermined emergency plan by the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service. They discover a hectic scene unfolding, buildings alight, vehicles burning and fireworks being shot out in almost every direction. The on-scene commander requested more firetrucks, by now a number of police had also arrived on the scene. Not long after a second fire was discovered at the builders beam site next door and a team are sent to try and battle the flames. Quickly this team are overwhelmed and were ordered to retreat. Incredibly they managed to leave with a couple of gas tanks that they had discovered. The firefighters are then informed that the shipping container on site was full of fireworks and was under threat from the growing inferno. The commander focused on two main areas, stopping the fire near some LPG tanks and stopping the fire near the shipping container. Water had to be drawn from the winter swimming pool, yet again more information about the container was received, this time about the size of the fireworks inside. Quickly the decision was made to withdraw. The evacuation whistle was sounded, most of the crews withdrew to the site entrance, but not all. At 2.42pm the container exploded, spewing out debris and flames amongst the farm. Nearly all the buildings on site were severely damaged and tragically two firefighters would not survive. Over 9 people were injured including police, firefighters and members of the public. Several more secondary fires and explosions erupted across the site, causing ongoing danger from projectiles, smoke and debris. Immediately after the explosion a search and rescue operation was launched with help from the South East Coast Ambulance Service and Sussex Police. The injured were recovered but one of the victims remained amongst the rubble. Watch commander, Wicca, wouldn't be recovered until the fire was finally under control on Tuesday 5th December. His body was carried out to a guard of his colleagues. The police and HSC would spend many more days combing through the wreckage site, gathering evidence. The shipping container was not on the licence and thus was in need of investigation. The East Sussex and Fire and Rescue Service would release a very detailed report on the disaster. It was pretty easy to find out where the explosion came from, but what made the container explode? Well, in their final report they stated. The continued rise in temperature inside the ISO container due to the adjacent fire would eventually lead to ignition of the contents. This could have occurred through two mechanisms. Either other combustible material within the ISO container auto ignited and this fire then set off the contents, or the contents themselves could have reached their ignition temperature and activated. Previous research including a number of tests carried out on the sensitivity of pyrotechnics to heat has shown that ignition occurs in the range of 220 and 360 degrees celsius. It was also noted that a large number of injuries sustained by those on site was likely due to the lack of perceived danger of fireworks. The report would also have 66 recommendations to the fire and rescue service, but ultimately the responsibility must fall on the site's owners, more specifically the ones who filled up the container, Martin and Nathan Winter. So that would lead to a court case of two counts of manslaughter. Nathan's series of events leading up to the initial fire was rather confused. For his defence, he would claim that the loose igniters activated as he was lifting them. He then claimed he dropped them on a box of fireworks, thus setting them off. However, an expert called in would discount this series of events, stating that it was highly unlikely for the fireworks to start unless the igniter was actually installed. You know the odd storage solution for the igniters in cans filled with nails? Well those nails would wear away well. I think I quickly need to explain how igniters work first. Electric igniters have two insulated wires, which at one end have a bridge wire coated with a small amount of pyrotechnic material. The pyrotechnic material is sensitive to heat and friction. The heat is supplied by a small electrical current which causes it to ignite, but you don't actually want the friction part to work. To protect the wire from this, it is covered in a lacquer. This can be damaged by sharp objects, like nails. And the friction of inserting the igniter into the fireworks is what could have caused the unintended explosion. But although negligently stored dodgy igniters probably aren't enough for a manslaughter conviction, the real crime was the unlicensed storage container full of explosives. Nathan and Martin Winter were, at Lewis Crown Court in December 2009, found guilty on all counts. These were upheld on appeal in 2010. Martin got seven years in prison and Nathan got five. Alpha Fireworks, the new name for festival fireworks limited, was charged with two counts of breaching the manufacturer and storage of explosives regulations. The families of firefighters Jeff Wicker and Brian Wembridge received compensation from the Fire Brigades Union of roughly £510,000 in 2016. This was rather frustrating for the families. As it took nearly 10 years for them to see any type of financial compensation, although obviously this wouldn't bring their loved ones back. It does feel like another slap in the face. Well I'm going to rate this disaster as outright negligent and a four on my legacy scale. Let me know if you agree in the comments below. This is a plain difficult production. All videos on the channel are creative commons attribution shared like licensed. Only difficult videos are produced by me, John, in the currently windy corner of southern London UK. I'd like to thank my Patrons and YouTube members for your financial support. I'd also like to plug my Twitter and my Instagram which I post up random photographs. And if you're enjoying this outro song then you can listen to it and watch the video in full on my second channel made by John. And all that's left to say is thank you for watching and Mr Music, play us out please.