Just heard about - News Flash - It woke people over 5 miles away in St Albans. No reports on casualties yet.
For anyone with family/friends in the area I hope they're ok and you get news soon. My prayers go to anyone involved in any way.

Yes. Watching it on news24. They say at the minute that its getting bigger, not under control yet.

Watching it. For 3 hours there's very little information about casualties or anything else. Obviouisly Mr B Liar isn't up yet or he'd be making proclamations about it. I suppose they had to close the A1 to be seen to be doing something.

Here's hoping there are no fatalities...



edit: so far reporters/fire brigade claim only minor casualties.

Just read about it on Forum.

I have cousins living nearby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Best wishes and sympathy to those nearby, and especially to anyone injured. One of the blasts woke me - we are six miles on the other side of London. I thought it was an odd time of year to be hearing thunder and felt vaguely uneasy ...... not till the radio 3 news came on later did I realise. Must be terrifying for anyone in the area. Do hope your cousins are safe Diapason.

Oh goodness, I didn't know. *switches radio on*

"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 casualties and emergency services are at the scene.

The first blast happened at 0603 GMT at the Buncefield fuel depot, close to junction 8 of the M1 motorway, 10 miles from Luton airport.

It is being treated as an accident and rumours that a plane was involved are unfounded, said a police spokesman.

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

Eyewitness Sam Matton, who lives half a mile from the depot, told BBC News: "The sky is sort of orange. The flames have got to be 60ft up in the air."


Click here to send the BBC News website your accounts
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 artillery 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.


Police have confirmed there were casualties at the oil depot

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.

Malcolm Stewart, who drives a tanker at the terminal, said there were 20 tanks on the site, each holding three million gallons of fuel.

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.

"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." "

BBC News

Thanks Nicki for that account.

Police are currently saying fewer than 20 casualties, and all minor injuries - if that is accurate there must be a lot of very lucky people around.

It seems like it could have been much worse, the pictures on the BBC News site look horrendous.

Cousins safe but shaken - thanks MaggieMay

Excellent piece of "online reporting" Nicki

More like excellent work of copying and pasting!

Good news Diapason.

I'm still amazed that I actually heard it. We worked out that it's probably 35 or 40 miles away.

edit later - apparently not so amazing - pales into insignificance when I read that people in Haywards Heath (Sussex), on the south coast and the Suffolk coast have reported hearing the explosions.

Glad your cousins are safe Diapason.

I hope everyone is ok.

Watching it on TV, it's horrible. I heard the explosion this morning.

Oh My God.

I hadn't heard about it until I just read this topic, and then put the radio on. I hope everyone is ok and there are no fatalities.

I've just seen it on the news. So glad nobody was killed. My best wishes to anyone who had family and friends injured in this horrendous accident.

Yes hope everyone is OK Just watched it on the internet.

Yes, I hope everyone is ok.

it woke me up this mornin! i thought mi cricket bats had all simultaneously fallen down! and i live like 20 miles away!

Hadn't heard about it until I just read it here, but I hope nobody has died. Must have been a pretty big explosion too - from the BBC site:

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.

And I'm sure the 60 million gallons of burning fuel will do wonders for the environment...!

Heard the explosion in France and the Netherlands! Goodness!

It's terrible. I hope people are OK...

I hope people are OK too.

I heard about it for the first time on my local radio at about 10am this morning. I didn't hear anything, though.

I posted a new topic with a BBC news report, only to realise afterwards that there was already a topic about this. Sorry about that.

Car Expert

I live only 15 miles or so from Hemel, and apparently everyone else round here was woken by the blast and even the house shaking (although I wasn't). You can see now thick black smoke drifting across the sky. There is also the smell, even where I am, like burning rubber. On top of that, this is the main supplier for London and the South-East, so this morning there was a huge rush on petrol with massive queues.

Heard it on the news this morning. Hope everyone is ok.

Quite an impressive cloud spreading over us in East London.
Should be interesting to see if the "hydrocarbons" (to quote a talking head on the news) come down as the weather conditions change overnight.

I don't know if anyone watches a satire called "Broken News" that's on at the moment. Have to say it's meant I can't watch much news seriously these days - and today's coverage has been no exception.

That said, here's to a quick return home for those forced out of their homes tonight.

I was wondering if they were dark clouds or the smoke from Hemel Hempstead. It did say on the weather forecast that it would be dry and sunny, so I was puzzled!

Car Expert

There were black clouds of smoke covering the sky, it's still quite foggy now.

I'm just wondering - would we have to take a few days off school maybe because of this?

Car Expert

I don't think so, it would have to be toxic fumes for that.

My mother (85) rang up this morning telling me she was woken up by it - the bed shook and she was quite worried. She more than 25 miles away in south west (Greater) London; my son didn't believe me when I told him she heard it, but now it turns out people heard it in France and Holland - that is just extraordinary.

And to think how much worse it could so easily have been - it just doesn't bear thinking about it.

Your heart goes out to the people who were unfortunate enough to be caught up in it.

Violinia

Was in stevenage on sunday wen i was woken to the blasts at 6am the houses wer rocked
travelled to suffolk later that afternoon cloud all over the place and toxic ash falling not nice

Having worked in the fire industry for a while now, I am astounded that the firefighters are using foam to tackle the fire. There are far safer and more efficient suppressants designed for hydrocarbon fires such as Micelle and F-500. There are some serious carcinogen problems with the out dated foams so if you get some on you wash it off and for goodnessake don't let the kids try to eat it! Well done to all the firecrews and let's hope the injuries stay low.