Buncefield Explosion

The 2005 Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal fire was caused by a series of explosions early on the morning of 11 December 2005. The terminal, generally known as the Buncefield Depot, is an oil storage facility located near the M1 motorway on the edge of Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, England. News reports described the incident as the biggest of its kind in peacetime Europe. The tank fires were extinguished by the afternoon of 13 December 2005. However, one storage tank re-ignited in the evening, and the firefighters left it to burn, rather than attempting to re-extinguish it.

The first and largest explosion occurred at 06:01 UTC near container 912. From all accounts, it seems to have been an unconfined vapour cloud explosion of unusually high strength. Because of an inversion layer, the explosions were heard a hundred miles (160 km) away; there were reports it was audible in France and the Netherlands. The British Geological Survey monitored the event, which measured 2.4 on the Richter scale.

It was reported that people were woken in south London, and as far west as Wokingham, where in its southern suburb, Finchampstead, numerous people felt the shockwave after the initial explosion. Subsequent explosions occurred at 06:27 and 06:28. Witnesses observed flames hundreds of feet high from many miles away, with the smoke cloud visible from space, and as far north as Lincolnshire.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• buncefield
• chemical
• process
• safety
• engineering
• vapor
• vapour
• cloud
• explosion
• boom
• fire

[rudeboy167]

In the early hours of Sunday 11 December 2005 events were about to unfold that would go down in the history of the UK Fire and Rescue Service. At 0601 hours the peace The resulting fire was one of the largest of its kind in Europe. It represented a challenge for everyone involved. Hertfordshire Fire & Rescue Service arrived within minutes and the IC had declared a major incident by 06:10 hours. No Injury's where caused and everybody got out safely. Max Bishop - Devon & Smerset Fire Rescue

[jschanna]

@rudeboy167 - Assuming you are Max - Thanks for your comment.  You might want to read about the Jaipur Depot Fire (India) which was similar to Buncefield. The emergency response was despicable though, and it took Army (Indian) to finally bring the fire under control. I work in process safety and am campaigning for a HSE equivalent structure in India.

[edmedmoped]

I was a mile away from it and slept through it :|

[zoemonkey199]

i live about a mile away and i slept through the whloe thing! :( when i woke up i could see this whole load of smoke outside my window it was really scary

[rotator1471]

@R3MUS2007 Flange.

[rotator1471]

Fukking flange. Absolute Chernobyl contaminated dirty old piece of flange lip.

[5jumpalol]

I was scared shitless when I saw this thing.I live in watford

[ZeeEraHD]

I was next to it in woodhall farm and didnt hear nothing but my dad did:/

[emmarawr5]

it was on my birthday:D

and i live just the other side of the estate and it blew off my bath panel and loft hatch and i woke up thinking we were being bombed haha! :')

[R3MUS2007]

Woah this is an epic song! What is it called? Oh and Crazy fires too...

[megatwingo]

Thanks for uploading this video!

[tjbayliss]

@briank05 Yes, politicians

Global warming is a fraud

It's lucky I wasn't there that morning, at the time I was working down the road.

Think the explosion was at about 5am?

I wouldn't have been there anyway in that case :)