banging: massive oil explosions north of London: them terrists again?

It sounds fairly horrific, though. Apparently the sky was blacked out over St. Albans.

Massive explosions hit fuel depot

Eyewitness accounts
Three large explosions have rocked a fuel depot near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire shooting flames hundreds of feet into the sky.
Police say there are 36 casualties, four of whom are being treated for serious injuries.

The first blast happened at 0603 GMT at the Buncefield fuel depot, close to junction 8 of the M1 motorway and was heard more than 100 miles away.

Police believe it was an accident. About 70 firefighters are on the scene.

Earlier rumours a plane was involved were unfounded, said a police spokesman.

Witnesses said another two explosions followed the first at 0626 GMT and 0627 GMT.

In total, 20 petrol tanks are involved in the fire, each said to hold three million gallons of fuel.

Eyewitness Jonathan Barr, who works next to the depot, told the BBC he was thrown from his chair by the force of his blast.

HAVE YOUR SAY
We heard an explosion and the whole house shook

Anil Taank, Northwood, Middlesex

Send us your comments

The M1 has been closed both ways between junctions 6a and 12.

The M10 motorway is closed in both directions between junction 1 and junction 7 as well as some arterial roads in Hemel Hempstead.

Luton airport is so far reported to be unaffected.

A spokeswoman said no flights have been affected by the explosion and the smoke was not affecting the flight path.

The area near the site has been evacuated, while police have advised residents living nearby to keep their windows and doors closed due to fumes.

Many houses have been damaged, with some reporting feeling effects from the explosion as far away as Oxfordshire, while it was heard in Surrey and Norfolk.

Enlarge Image

Eyewitnesses reported buckled front doors, cracked walls and blown-out windows.

The Buncefield depot is a major distribution terminal operated by Total and part-owned by Texaco, storing oil, petrol and well as kerosene which supplies airports across the region, including Heathrow and Luton.

It is also used by BP, Shell and British Pipeline.

"We are doing everything we can to support the emergency services and to bring the situation under control," said a Total spokesman.

'Out-of-control'

One eyewitness, Jonathan Barr, told the BBC he was working a night shift in the building next door to the fuel depot at the time of the blast.

He was sitting in his office "and the next minute I was on the floor and it was pitch black. I was thrown off my chair," he said.

It is a scene of utter devastation

Colin Campbell, BBC reporter

He received cuts and bruises.

He said he and a colleague had to break a window to get out because the doors were buckled.

They got out of the front of the building and were taken to hospital by passing motorists.

BBC reporter Colin Campbell said: "There are huge fireballs gushing out of the fuel depot.

"Many people are standing by filming the scene on mobile phones. There are gigantic flames, it would be impossible to contain at the moment, it is out of control.

The distribution depot is 10 miles from Luton airport

"It is a scene of utter devastation."

BBC correspondent Sinead Wilson, who lives in nearby St Albans said there was a huge plume of smoke covering the sky.

"There is a smell of gas, lots of fire engines, police cars in the area," she said.

"It looks to me as if the entire depot is under fire."

Dave Franklin told BBC News: "There was a massive loud bang which broke windows above us and to the right. The whole sky just turned orange and black."

Michael Vatty said: "The impression was that it was a clap of thunder, but as soon as we got up we saw the flames. We had the garage door blown in, the front door was also blown in."

Just now on the news: "there may be more explosions - police have said they're expecting a couple more tankers to explode this morning"

the satellite image of the smoke is mental.

apparently people in holland and france said they heard it. i don't think i believe that tho.

everything is all hazy outside!

I'm off to see if the smoke is visible from the top of Gipsy Hill...

maybe they were trying to solve the problem but it just got the better of them?

used to live in hemel and worked off maylands avenue which has been mentioned in a lot of the reports, albeit at the other end (office was on three cherry trees lane* which leads to buncefield lane but i lived the other side and can't picture the depot). odd hearing hemel placenames all over the news. my first thought, of course, was that it was the hemel hellmouth opening up...

* twee-est road name ever

It wasn't very twee, one of my housmates was an alcoholic sculptor who owned a machete.

More importantly, my day was ruined: a nice bright sunny day so I decide to head to Epping Forest for a walk. Suddenly the sky turns black and I have to put my headlights on to see where I'm going. Get to the edge of the Forest, and while changing my shoes somehow contrive to lock my car keys in my boot. So rather than a sunny walk in the forest, I have a long, blackened smoky walk through the streets of E17.

There's some good ones in the obligatory Flickr group.

check out the black cloud visible from that distance.

the BBC gallery of the site itself is something
else...

xpost

It looks like the view from Suicide Bridge in Archway.

Fox's lead picture of what REALLY caused it.

That sentence again:

Police say there are 36 casualties, four of whom are being treated for serious injuries.

(source)

This subtle scaremongering is getting tired, folks. "Just four days" could also prove it wasn't an attack because planning and executing something as large as this in just four days is probably impossible, but noooooo, we're going to only mention "just four days after the tape" and let our readers "form their own opinions."

bah, xpost.

bah, xpost as well.

it's actually called A+E dept though...

Cos you panic-bought all the petrol you bastard.

So start panic-buying Big Macs now, if that's your thing.

cant believe some poor gits got evacuated to Wallyworld/Jarmans Park. Of all the places.....

maybe they got free "sparkling wine" from Visage.

Dacorum hasnt had this much news coverage since those kids using flourescent tubes for light sabres and berkhamsted town getting to the finals of the FA Vase

Several explosions have been reported at the ICI chemical works in Billingham on Teesside, police have said.

Cleveland Fire and Rescue have declared a "major emergency" at the plant.

Cleveland Police have said there are no reports of injuries or details of damage, but they are dealing with a "major incident".

Les Gunn, who lives about four miles away from the plant, told BBC News 24 he was woken by an "absolutely deafening" sound.

"The second one was absolutely huge," he added.

"There was a huge ball of flame."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5035734.stm

http://imagesocket.com/images/5189explosion3.jpg