(Updated) BREAKING NEWS: Massive Series of Explosions rock Southern England

Sky News UK ^ | December 11, 2005

[Big Bad Bob]

Reports of up to Four Explosions at a fuel depot Near Hemel Hempstead, North West of London, according to Sky

__________________

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...

[norraad]

..they does all blow up once'st in a while".

Which Arco did you grow up near?

The terrorist cannot hold a candle to what we'll be doing to ourselves in future.

BP & other Brit~oil corpos seem to be leading the pack with taking profit from maintenance & safety budgets, so expect them to be blowing themselves up first & more often.

The others will follow when they see how easy it is to get away with.

[pointsal]

Seems like a run of bad luck... what's up?

[TheSpottedOwl]

There is no valid reason why a group will blow up a target and not claim responsibility especially a economic target such as this.

This is true, if we look at their past track record. Don't think for one minute that they aren't monitoring the local population, or websites like this one. The very notion of terror is the unknown. Who are they, where are they, and when will they strike again?

Sometimes it is more useful to not claim responsibility. At least immediately. I'm not saying that I believe that this refinery accident was a bona fide act of terrorism, but it sure has our tongues wagging, doesn't it?

[TheSpottedOwl]

I think the Arco is on 190th and Artesia, most definitely in the vacinity. Torrance has gotten waaaay too big. If you live in SoCal, you probably recognize the news shots of one of the storage things up in flames.

I read one of your earlier posts about the workers that know about safety procedures, dying off or retiring. This is a very big problem. See, if that Arco went up in flames, I know that it will probably be the result of human error. The quest for cost cutting causes more problems, expensive problems, than it solves.

[Recovering Hermit]

First thought is ROP but I have no information.

That's also my first thought when anything explodes lately.

[RegulatorCountry]

" who is natalie holloway and what does she have to do with the subject in hand"

Natalie Holloway was a pretty, blonde student from Alabama, who disappeared in Aruba, and there was nonstop coverage of her disappearance, for months, and it still goes on to some degree, even after her body was found. It's sad and horrible, but out of all the people abducted and killed in the world, our news media chose to cover this to the near-exclusion of any other "news," primarily because she was young and pretty.

[gotribe]

Didn't Zarqawi just urge his minions to attack oil assets?

[norraad]

...his minions are morons, the presstitutes only give him coverage because he's young & pretty, metaphorically speaking, not like Natalie.

[tonycavanagh]

re :Sometimes it is more useful to not claim responsibility.

There is only ever one reason not to claim responsibility and that is when the operation has in the eyes of the group responsible gone wrong, the wrong people were killed, this happened very rarely in North Ireland, one case a pregnant women with another baby in a pram was killed causing wide spread revulsion.

That is not the case here, this is a economic blow.

All operations carried out by terrorist are governed by political, propaganda as well as the destruction caused.

It is to tell the target population you are not safe, we can strike anyhow anywhere, and striking and not telling goes against these tenets, tenets that have been avidly followed by Islamic groups, maximum destruction maximum publicity.

These are the most camera loving terrorists we have met.

[RegulatorCountry]

"Didn't Zarqawi just urge his minions to attack oil assets?"

Yes.

[norraad]

..which shows what an uninformed deluded child he is,...

Big oil could care less, like taking a straw out of your girlfriends milkshake at burgerking, she'll just go to the counter, get another straw and continue sucking.

[Canard]

It was Ayman al-Zawahri and he specifically refernced sites in the Middle East.

[eastforker]

I do not think Natalie Holloways body has been found has it? If it has it just goes to show hom much I have ignored the case.

[RightWhale]

Big oil could care less

Energy consumption worldwide is now the equivalent of 205 million barrels of oil a day. Oil itself is 81 million barrels produced and consumed daily. Oil plus natural gas is 60% of daily world energy consumption. Non-OPEC oil production will level out by 2010, and OPEC will produce 60% of world oil by then. By 2030 world energy consumption will be about 300 million barrels oil equivalent. Big Oil will still be producing only average profits.

[gotribe]

Thanks for the clarification. I can't keep the Z guys straight.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Okay, I'll buy that explaination. The terrorists most certainly love the camera. So the question is, what really happened to the refinery?

[Canard]

Here's one possibility:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4527864.stm

"A tanker driver who fears he may have sparked the fire at the Buncefield fuel depot has been interviewed by police.

A friend of the driver told the Sun newspaper that fuel ignited when he flicked his engine cut-out switch after detecting a vapour leakage."

[TheSpottedOwl]

that sounds like a very logical explanation. I hope the guy doesn't get in trouble.

[aQ_code_initiate]

Oh my stars!!! Osama has exploded a fuel air bomb over London!

[norraad]

..what really happened...

Think of the time you tried to get one more season out of that old car battery you knew was old and weak but still managed to start the car until that first cold day, well same thing here.

The older seals shrink smaller than usual and vapours get out and swirl along the ground until they find a "spark plug" and go to town.