The Buncefield fire was a major conflagration caused by a series of explosions on 11 December 2005 at the Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal,[1] an oil storage facility located near the M1 motorway by Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, England.[2][3] The terminal was the fifth largest oil-products storage depot in the United Kingdom, with a capacity of about 60,000,000 gallons of fuel.[3][4] The terminal is owned by TOTAL UK Limited (60%) and Texaco (40%).[5][6][7][8]
The first and largest explosion occurred at 06:01 UTC near tank 912,[6][9] which led to further explosions which eventually overwhelmed 20 large storage tanks.[10] The emergency services announced a major emergency at 06:08 and a fire fighting effort began. The cause of the explosion seems to have been a fuel-air explosion of unusually high strength. Latest evidence suggests this may have been caused by hedgerows of deciduous trees accelerating the flame front to such a degree its pressure wave caused remaining air fuel to detonate. [11] The British Geological Survey monitored the event, which measured 2.4 on the Richter scale.[4][9][12] News reports described the incident as the biggest of its kind in peacetime Europe and certainly the biggest such explosion in the United Kingdom since the 1974 Flixborough disaster.[1][13] The flames had been extinguished by the afternoon of 13 December 2005. However, one storage tank re-ignited that evening, which the fire-fighters left to burn rather than attempting to extinguish it again.[3][5]
The Health Protection Agency and the Major Incident Investigation Board provided advice to prevent incidents such as these in the future.[14] The primary need is for safety measures to be in place to prevent fuel escaping the tanks in which it is stored.[15] Added safety measures are needed for when fuel does escape, mainly to prevent it forming a flammable vapour and stop pollutants from poisoning the environment.[15]