Massive blaze rages at fuel depot

December 11, 2005 by
Filed under: Uncategorized 

BBC reports that a “fire is continuing to blaze at a fuel depot in Hertfordshire after a series of large explosions sent black smoke drifting across south-east England.”

A fire chief described the incident at the Buncefield fuel depot near Hemel Hempstead, after 0600 GMT, as possibly the largest in peacetime Europe. The fire, which police believe was an accident, could burn for another day.

I used to work in Hemel, back in 1992-94, and I know where that depot is … err, was.

Many houses have been damaged, with some reporting feeling effects from the explosion as far away as Oxfordshire – while it was heard in a number of counties and even France and the Netherlands.

Wow!

Check out the photos:

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Comments

2 Comments on Massive blaze rages at fuel depot

  1. paul on Sun, 11th Dec 2005 11:18 pm

    2. I think the time on the image is wrong (it says 0940 GMT but I think they mean 9:40pm / 2140 GMT) not that it matters – just look at the size of that cloud!
    BBC map of affected area
    “With light winds blowing to the south-east and south-west, smoke is likely to be spread over large parts of southern England by Monday” [BBC]

    I actually lived/worked in the area – here’s my modified version of their map:

  2. paul on Mon, 12th Dec 2005 3:15 pm

    3. Netstat reports that the fire has “knocked some prominent UK sites offline”.

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