BB FANS

ITV
10.31AM, Sun Dec 11 2005

A series of explosions has torn through an oil depot in Hertfordshire, sending flames and smoke shooting hundreds of feet into the sky.

Police and emergency crews raced to the scene of the blasts which rocked Buncefield fuel terminal, near Hemel Hempstead, in Hertfordshire at around 6am.

Ten people are thought to have been on the site at the time of the blasts, but all have reportedly been accounted.

Initial reports said witnesses heard a plane going overhead shortly before the first explosions - but police were quick to dismiss that suggestion, insisting the incident was an "accident".

The first blast happened just after 6am at the fuel terminal in Leverstock Green, which is believed to supply aviation fuel via pipes to Heathrow airport.

The force of the blast blew out windows at the nearby Ramada Hotel, which has since been evacuated. Local residents are also being moved as police fear further explosions.

A spokeswoman for Hertfordshire Police said: "Police and other emergency services are attending the area of Buncefield oil depot near Hemel Hempstead this morning following reports of an explosion just after 6am.

"There is nothing to suggest at this stage that this is anything but an accident, but we are keeping an open mind.

"Contrary to rumours in circulation, there is also nothing to suggest that a plane was involved in this accident."

Witnesses said homes and surrounding businesses were damaged by the force of explosions.

Residents nearby said they were awoken by a "loud boom" as their houses "shook".

People living as far away as Surrey reported that they heard the initial blast. Two smaller blasts followed at around 6.20am.

Flights at Luton airport - about 10 miles away - in Hertfordshire were operating normally.

The fuel terminal, which is close to junction 8 of the M1 forced the closure of the motorway in both directions between junctions 6 and 10. The M10 was also completely closed.

Boom boom boom !

Woke me up at 6am.
Rumbling...until around 6.35.

Nasty smoke is just south of me.
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What a wake up call. For a moment I thought 'ohoh, first strike, Russian nuke attack!'

Calrissian: for a few seconds...it was DEFCON'1

Ananova

Hundreds of people have been evacuated from their homes close to the blazing Buncefield fuel depot and are sheltering at a nearby leisure centre.

Residents from Barleycroft, Leverstock Green, have gathered at Jarmans Park on the outskirts of Hemel Hempstead. People have brought their pets but very few have come with a change of clothes and nobody knows what is going to happen.

Dominic and Sheila Gizzie, who live near a cemetery only a quarter of a mile from the blast site, said they thought there may have even been an earthquake.

Mrs Gizzie said: "I have never heard such a loud explosion in my life, we did not know what it was, we have recently come back from New Zealand so we thought it may have been an earthquake."

The retired couple ran to their windows to see what was going on. Mr Gizzie said: "The flames were 100ft into the air, I have never seen anything so big."

The couple were told by police that they must evacuate their house in case another explosion occurred. Police fear that the fire may catch gas pipes underneath the houses, leading to yet more explosions.

Maureen Talbert, from Barleycroft, was fast asleep when the blast threw her from her bed. The 65-year-old looked out of her window and saw flames shooting into the air. She said: "Like most people I thought a plane had crashed and everybody was running into the street to have a look."

Mrs Talbert was evacuated to the centre while more than 200 firefighters attended the scene. They are not trying to quell the flames, instead letting the fuel burn out.

At the centre pizzas were being handed round to the evacuees and emergency service staff. Scores of people huddled around television screens to try to find out what had happened.

Sandra, 55, and Peter Cockran, 56, from Leverstock Green were evacuated from their house less than an hour after the first explosion. Mrs Cockran said: "We are all feeling a little bit shaky still, we want to go home but we just don't know how long it will take."

Pictures from CBBC

My mum was already awake when it happened and she said she was so glad that it didn't wake her or she would have probably thought burglars were breaking in. She said her windows shook and coffee table shook spilling some coffee. She went straight outside as she expected someone's car had blew up.
She lives in Harefield Middlesex. Apparently people up tp 40 miles away heard it.
I didn't hear anything though as I didn't get to sleep until about 4am and had had a few drinks beforehand

some absolutely stunning pics today, including that sat' pic*

*it looks as though Reading is the source, but thats just a quirk of the wind patterns. The smoke starts top middle of the smoke area...and then drifts outwards - mostly south.
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Calrissian: waiting for another blast wave.

There is a thick black smog over the Thames valley .If you walk up to a higher point like the Ridgeway can look over the top of it.Quite eerie.Just seen some pictures someone took up there this morning.

It looks really nasty, that smoke , you lot keep safe down there

Some people in the immediate area of the 'fallout zone' - an area where the particles cool down enough to then fall, would do well do get outta there ! Although this is relatively a small area, no more than 10 or 20 square miles to the east/south of Hemel.

Everyone else can relax, and just watch the story with curiosity. The fire will certainly last until midweek, if not the next weekend. There are 150,000 tonnes of stuff to burn there...along with a lot of infrastructure.

Calrissian: not quite close enough to toast a few marshmellows.

We went past this on the train coming home from London - the smoke looked really bad

Earthquakeeeeeeeeeeeeee

http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/recent ... vents.html

oh yeah...a 2.4
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Calrissian: shaking and baking

Those Getty images are stunning!They capture the scene perfectly. The temperature inversion we have right now won't help matters in the smoke dissipating.

Well on the plus side,we had THE most stunning sunsets in the Thames valley tonight.
I was up on the ridgeway earlier looking down at the settling mist(was just south of Wycombe at the time so about 20 miles SW of scene)..and it was eerie to watch the mist(oddly pink) settling in the valley.It was a full 6 degrees higher up there (hasnt gone above freezing in the Thames Valley all day and airless so dispersion will be minimum).I lprobably live too far out to be affected tho

ananova

The thick plume of smoke seen rising from the flames caused by the explosions at Buncefield fuel terminal has spread across southern England and is heading towards the Channel, meteorologists have said.

The plume which was earlier seen clearly on satellite pictures as a thick blob moving east, west and southwards was being tracked by infra-red after the sun went down.

It was thought light winds would move the smoke eastwards but winds have been so slight the cloud has continued to rise and gradually diffuse outwards.

Jeremy Plester, meteorologist at the PA WeatherCentre, forecast spectacular sunsets over the next few days as the smoke continues to rise into the atmosphere.

"The higher they rise, the more they disperse the sunlight," he said.

The particles were perhaps too low in the sky to create a beautiful sunset, he said.

The plume was heading towards the coast and was half way down towards Hampshire. It had reached southern Essex, Kent and north Sussex, he said.

"It will almost certainly go over to France when the breeze picks up," he said.

Small particles could fall down over the next few days due to gravity but as the smoke spreads it will be diluted and less harmful.

Only light rain is forecast in the north on Monday so black rainfall is unlikely.