Operators at the pumping station seeing that the tank was
apparently not yet full increased the flow rate of the petrol
flowing into the tank to 890m3/h. The operators did not stop
to consider that they had been pumping petrol into a tank for
several hours but the height as displayed had not increased.
At 5:46 am nearby security cameras showed a 2m thick vapour
cloud on the ground and spreading out in all directions from
the storage facility. At 6:01 am the cloud detonated, ignited
by a source in a car park. The resulting explosion did a huge
amount of damage but because it was early on a Saturday
morning no one was injured.