Blast at Hemmel-is everyone ok?

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Blast at Hemmel-is everyone ok?
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hils

Joined: 08 Mar 2005
Posts: 568
Location: Nottingham

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 05 9:26 am Post subject: Blast at Hemmel-is everyone ok?
Watching news re oil and petrol depot. snippet from News report- Three major explosions rocked an oil depot early today. The first blast happened just after 6am at the Buncefield fuel terminal in Leverstock Green, Herts, close to Hemel Hempstead and junction 8 of the M1. This is awful - I feel physically sick.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45672
Location: Essex

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 05 9:39 am Post subject:

Loopy Lou

Joined: 02 Apr 2005
Posts: 263
Location: Northamptonshire

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 05 9:48 am Post subject:
My thoughts are with those involved and nearby - hope you are OK.

Lozzie

Joined: 25 May 2005
Posts: 2595

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 05 11:01 am Post subject:
Have they discovered what the cause was yet? Or is it still too early?

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 05 11:40 am Post subject:

Very few injuries (due to timing, thank goodness, and that probably rules out terrorist attack) We did get woken up by an infernal bang at 6am and I sent himself outside to check the roof was still on, and the dogs quaked under the bed. I think the police are too busy dealing with keeping the chavs out of the way to determine the cause, but its expected to burn for four days, and we're supposed to stay inside with the windows shut. Its very cold, as the smoke has made cloud cover thats shut out the sun (its only sunny round the edges here today)

The perculiar thing was, that after something I thought was a lorry running into a house, himself thought was an earthquake, and the newspeople thought was a aircrash, there was no-one else out in the street this morning, checking their rooves. I wonder what they all thought - maybe they didn't bother looking out, and just turned the telly - its how we found out what happened, after all.

Oh - and the news reports are wrong - there were four explosions, not three. I heard 'em! I'm just glad the place was practically deserted - its amazing there were no fatalities.

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 05 12:39 pm Post subject:
WW: glad you're OK: miraculous that there were no deaths. Me being me, though, one of my first thoughts was: what about livestock?

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 05 12:59 pm Post subject:

News 24 has just shown some pictures from a helicopter over central London, and satellite photography showing the plume.

It seems there is a temperature inversion, basically the weather putting a lid on the smoke - so it can't disperse more than a couple of thousand feet UP.
The plume looks to extend almost right across the northeast section of the M25.
It'll be down here around nightfall...
I expect the rain forecast for overnight will bring some rather unpleasant pollution to the ground. I'm a bit concerned about things like contamination of grazing land... Dunno how nasty the stuff is likely to be - but dieselly soot isn't going to be good.

BTW, people in Folkestone were woken by the explosion. I think this is more likely to be feeling it (shock wave through the ground) rather than the air-carried noise - which at 120 miles distant at 600 mph would have taken 1/5 hour (12 mins) to get here...

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 05 1:36 pm Post subject:
Seeing all that burning made me think about the pollution- that is clearly evident as it went up in one big go, but it was all intended to get dispersed into the atmosphere in the end, just we wouldn't notice it immediately

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28235
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 05 1:41 pm Post subject:
One report said the explosion was heard in Holland

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 05 4:04 pm Post subject:
I woke up at that time, which is most odd for me, looked at the clock and went back to sleep. One news report said that it had been heard in Norfolk, others say Holland, so I guess it isn't surprising that I woke up. IF it's oil, petrol and kerosene burning, then pollution will be short lived. Fingers crossed, eh?

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28235
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 05 4:07 pm Post subject:
My brother was called into work this morning, and apparently the pipe line is intact, but the fire is expected to burn for days.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28235
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 05 5:07 pm Post subject:
I also note we are on the smoke path, but then the area is vast https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4518500.stm

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 05 7:39 pm Post subject:

I'm a little disappointed at the vagueness of some of the reporting of the plume affected area (even East/West confusion at the BBC this morning) - and the associated weather forecasting and prediction of affected areas.
And this is with a plume that is highly visible.
Thank heavens its not an invisible radioactive plume...

Much though I approve of biodiesel, I am well aware of the toxicity of *mineral* diesel fuel to wildlife.
And uncontrolled burning with incomplete combustion is likely to vapourise some unburnt fuel. Which would then condense on the soot... I think there's likely to be appreciable quantities of Dioxins there as well. I don't need to be told that the plume "mainly" consists of CO2, some CO and soot. One expects those with *any* fire. The question is what else is there? What are the contaminants?
Anyway, there's going to be a mess...
"Its a hard rain a-gonna fall"

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 05 7:58 pm Post subject:

dougal wrote:

The question is what else is there? What are the contaminants?

Some dioxins, assorted sulfur compounds, some benzene and other mixed up organic chickenwire, mid chain length and heavier hydrocarbons, that kind of thing. Nothing I'm too worried about for the long term, it's amazing the way most of that stuff breaks down in the soil, but short term it's messy and unpleasant.

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 05 8:28 pm Post subject:
I had thought of Dioxins as being rather long-lived... {shrug} As above, its herbivores, rather than humans, that I would expect to be at risk. Fortunately, there's not many crops being harvested right now.

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