Posted on 12/10/2005 10:42:38 PM PST by Big Bad Bob
Edited on 12/10/2005 11:05:40 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Reports of up to Four Explosions at a fuel depot Near Hemel Hempstead, North West of London, according to Sky
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Update:
Explosion Near London
The first picture, taken by a Sky News viewer
Map of the area
Updated: 06:41, Sunday December 11, 2005
There has been a large explosion followed by two smaller blasts in the St Albans area, around 25 miles north of London.
Sky Correspondent Sky Meade has said he can see flames about 200ft in the sky and there appears to be burning fuel.
Speaking by telephone from his home, Meade described "burning tongues" of flames in the sky.
The first blast happened at 6.03am - the other explosions followed about 20 minutes later.
Meade, a seasoned war reporter said he can see what looks like "burning aviation fuel".
"This fire is extremely intense. It is a bright orange glow on the horizon," he said.
Witnesses have told Sky News they heard the blast near Junction 8 of the M1. It is thought to be centred around Bunsfield fuel depot, near Hemel Hempstead.
The blast was felt at Sky Centre - more than 20 miles away in west London.
It was so powerful it blew out the windows at a hotel in Hemel Hempstead. There are reports of injuries there.
And one witness has told how the explosion shook his mother's house and lifted the roof.
Witnesses have told Sky News that emergency services are converging on the area.
Sky News producer Anwar Tambe heard the blast from his home in Luton and is currently stuck in traffic on the M1.
He said blasts are "going off regularly" and debris has blown onto the motorway.
More follows...
The Fire is getting worse
Yes and the reporter just said all 20 now involved.
LBC
Blasts being treated as accident.
Lots of roads closed.
Small explosions still going off around the site.
Contigency plan includes cordoning off area, shutting down pipelines, and letting fire burn out.
The images are simply unreal. The horizontal shot from across the field shows a widespread black cloud. They're telling people to stay indoors because of it.
LIVE UK RADIO ON THE WEB
http://www.mikesradioworld.com/eu_uk.html
I don't think terrorist would target oil depots yet... they still want to be able to kill a large amount of people to scare people into submission like what happened in spain. If they were to hit an oil depot it would have to be pretty darn close, or right next to a city with a large population center. This to me seems like an accident.
how many ROPers were working there
Live TV as well ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/default.stm#
Surely these things are designed not to blow up from things like gas leaks and cigarette butts. What could have caused such a thing?
You are going to have a instant fuel shortage in the UK....planes are going to have to fill up in other countries, etc.
If you set off a set of attacks this week there would be pandemonium
I haven't heard any numbers, and I lost the feed to LBC News -- the servers are probably swamped.
Economic warfare, gas just dropped in price here, now watch it skyrocket back up. They fight on many levels.
Either way, I would think that gasoline prices are going to rise, especially in the UK. Not fun.
They are showing....
That's true but it may be getting mighty difficult for terrorists to operate inside London, and they may have lost a lot of operatives to MI5 investigations. Infrastructure in small cities is much easier to strike without getting caught on surveillance cameras and without getting shot by transit police. It does seem much too early to say with any certainty that this is an accident.
CNN has returned to commercials and things that weren't too interesting the first time they aired it.
LBC is reporting no serious injuries, the workers who are injured (only slightly) are sitting around drinking tea.
Sky News banner - ambulance services saying that casualties are 'minimal'. Good news.
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