The boss of a company whose fireworks factory blew up after a series of safety breaches has been banned from acting as a director for five years.

But due to his impoverished status Andrew Collins, 33, will only have to pay total fines of £300 for the failures which contributed to the massive fire at the Firemagic Ltd's base outside Clevedon on October 26, 2006.

The explosion, which could be heard up to six miles away, and subsequent blaze destroyed the factory and two neighbouring businesses, including a classic car restoration firm where 15 cars were stores, at the Kenn Court Business Park.

Three people working at the factory needed hospital treatment for smoke inhalation and shock.

Collins, of Wemberham Crescent, Yatton, had earlier pleaded guilty to two out of seven charges brought against him by North Somerset Council's trading standards department following its biggest ever investigation. He had also pleaded guilty to three of seven charges on behalf of Firemagic Ltd as the company's sole director.

The company was fined £5,000 for each of those charges, but the court heard the fines were unlikely to be paid as it was on the brink of being wound up.

Bristol Crown Court heard the fire and explosion was caused by an assembler testing detonators.

The night sky was lit up for miles around as thousands of rockets and shells went off in the fire, which started in the warehouse tool room.

The court heard three people were assembling fireworks late into the night for the peak bonfire season when the fire began at about 9.30pm.

One of the men noticed a small flame in the tool room, where he had been working with detonators.

Against the industry code of practice they had tried to tackle the blaze themselves – emptying six fire extinguishers in vain before calling the emergency services. One was Collins' former business partner Peter Taschimowitz, who was said to have suffered long-term psychological harm.

David Morgan, prosecuting, said there were a number of serious safety breaches committed in the run-up to the fire.

He said the men preparing the fireworks were fusing them before the explosion, a procedure involving the cutting of fuses on fireworks and joining them together in order to maximise their explosive effect.

He said: "Fusing is an extremely hazardous operation."

He told the court regulations were in place to ensure it wasn't carried out anywhere near stored fireworks or any possible source of a spark.

Once fireworks were prepared for displays he said they should have been removed to three secure shipping containers on the site a safe distance from the warehouse.

But witnesses, including two police staff fitting CCTV at the warehouse on the day of the fire because of previous break-ins, reported up to 30 boxes of fireworks sitting on the floor of the warehouse. They also claim a bonfire was alight during the day, within 20 metres of the open doors of the warehouse – a claim denied by Collins.

Mr Morgan criticised the company's training regime, describing it as being done on an "ad-hoc basis".

He also stated the company had at least double the amount of fireworks it was licensed to store on the site at the time of the explosion.

Alan Fuller, defending, denied there were as many as 30 boxes lying around awaiting distribution, but admitted it could have been about 13. He said Collins was genuinely remorseful about the incident, particularly the damage done to his neighbours.

Mr Fuller said: "Contrary to the impression given by the Crown this is not a cowboy operation."

Mr Fuller said the company admitted to overstocking fireworks but had been misled by the Chinese firm it imported fireworks from as to their explosive content, taking it over the limits of its licence. He also said Collins had been involved in the fireworks industry since he was 19 and had an impeccable safety record at thousands of displays.

He said: "This was a well-established operation which put on hundreds of displays each year across the West Country. It appears that on the basis of what we have heard the fire resulted due to inappropriate actions when Mr Collins wasn't in attendance."

The court heard the company had no assets, owed the taxman £50,000 and had only survived the past two years because of loans made to it by Collins' father, Rod Collins.

Both Collins and the company pleaded guilty to counts of failure to take appropriate measures to limit the extent of fire or explosion and failure to protect persons from the effects of fire or explosion.

The company also pleaded guilty to the charge of storing explosives in excess of the maximum quantity licensed.

As well as banning and fining Collins yesterday Judge Julian Lambert also banned him from driving for six months, despite no driving offence being committed.

Sentencing Collins, Judge Lambert said: "Training was so inadequate that when fire broke out workers tried to tackle it themselves against the regulations, putting their health and safety and ultimately their lives at risk. Figures for damage exceeded £300,000 and one man had his business ruined."

He said Collins, a father of four who now has no job or income, had brought the company to its knees and had acted in a way which left him with no choice but to ban him as a director for a significant period of time.

Judge Lambert said even after the fire the company continued to exceed the limits of its firework storage licence.

He didn't order Collins pay the council's costs, which ran into six figures, due to his inability to pay.