England oil Blast

Hi everyone,

The blast woke me at 6am the whole house shook and the noise was horrendous.

My family/friends live 9 miles from the blast area and they are ok.

Ive emailed Russ and hope he , family and friends are all ok .

Dawn


Following was taken from AOL news

Four people have been seriously injured after massive explosions ripped through an oil terminal.


They were among 36 casualties following a series of blasts which rocked the Buncefield depot near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, police said.

The force of the blasts could be heard up to 40 miles away as flames shot more than 200 feet into the sky.

Despite residents reporting they heard the sound of a plane overhead before the explosions, Hertfordshire Police Chief Constable Frank Whiteley told a news conference they are treating the incident as an accident.

The first blast happened just after 6am at the fuel terminal in Leverstock Green, Herts, close to junction eight of the M1.

The depot - which holds huge stocks of various fuels - also supplies aviation fuel for Heathrow and Luton airports.

Mr Whiteley said 100 police officers are at the scene alongside more than 100 firefighters. He said it was the largest fire he had ever seen.

More explosions are expected at the scene but Mr Whiteley stressed that the fire is under control and should not spread to a larger area.

The public is being advised to stay indoors and not go near the immediate area of the blasts.

Anyone concerned about the blasts should ring the Casualty Bureau on 0800 096 095. If anyone is feeling unwell they are advised to call NHS Direct on 0845 4647.

Mr Whiteley said: "All indications at this stage are that this was an accident. However, clearly we will keep an open mind until we can confirm that for certain.''

Police said there had been damage to buildings in the area around the terminal which was being assessed.

There were a number of traffic diversions around the area after the M1 was closed.

These pics are absolutley amazing.. some scenes it looks like something out of a movie. No deaths so far which is a relief.




some more links;
http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/8639/fire58jo5su.jpg
http://flickr.com/photos/silyld/sets/1555657
http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/8987/fire48to6jk.jpg
http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/5794/smoke2a9gr.jpg


andi

I saw this on the news this morning, but only caught the tail end of the report. The pictures are incredible.

Doesn't Andy (Joeykid) live in Herts? Hope everyone is ok.

Steph

No one got killed and only 4 are seriously hurt. It's just a large scale fire now.

Ice

Hate to say it - but that's one beautiful picture! Thankfully no deaths, although I can imagine this is not too good for the environment...

government so called specialists tell everyone the smoke isnt toxic, then tonight they dont think it is toxic based on other similar large fires... but they cant say as they are still in the process of testing it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its not basic petrol, its all that aviation crap ...... now its going to rain acid into the crops and cause problems there.....if they actually bother telling us about it !!!!!!!!!!!

One report says the fire will be out tomorrow, while another says it will be days...... true is no one knows as what they are attempting to contrl hasnt been done before on this level.... hope they hell it actually works and doesnt harm the people in the process.

Dawn

They have said that fire fighters should be able to put it out today, but there are some unexploded tanks that may blow up and start new fires over the next few days :/

Luckily this wasn't a terrorist attack, imagine if it had been and had given other terrorist groups similar ideas, like with the train bombs.

Beautiful pics

I heard that the reason they havent used foam to put out the fire yet is because of the damage it will do to our water surply .Apparently its going straight in to the ground , so the water will be a mixture of petrol and foam .

Yes i heard that yesterday evening and Matt told me oh oh it's not far from Russ ....


That's really impressive.

Agree Sara, i understand why you say this picture is beautiful. That's true.

Now what about the smoke ? they say it's not toxic ... ???

its here, the big cloud of smoke.... I didnt eventhink about and went into the front garden today to see if I had any parcels and the smell was awful , I looked up and there is a big dark cloud I can see that 20 miles away it is clear blue .... it is blowing over us but its taking its time.

After getting a good whiff it does burn your throat for about 10 mins , but once inside again it began to calm down, I can smell it a bit in the living room, but the rest of the house was fine.... Hope the wind keeps blowing it away from the explosion site and in this direction as at least its a bit diluted here Im 70 miles away from the explosion.... Im worried that when they try to put it out the cloud will begin to drop... it might be to much for my mum in that area , I told her we will come and get her...

Dawn