(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...

[RegulatorCountry]

"Well, there's been a 9/11 and a 3/11 (Spain)."

Ooooh ... and as we all know, 9 + 3 = 12. 12/11, lol.

[metmom]

Logging onto FR is like entering a time warp. Read a couple threads, make a couple posts, and before you know it 3 hours has passed and it's 2 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING!!!!! I've GOT to get to bed. At least tomorrow....er... today is Sunday.

[msnimje]

They have the breaking news chicks, Paige Hopkins, Donna Faduccia, and Uma Pemeragiu. (Probably all spelled wrong!)

[metmom]

I'd be surprised if there WEREN'T any casualties.

[knews_hound]

I'm glad someone figured it out.

Cheers,

knews hound

[Diddle E. Squat]

Not much when I did a google image search on 'buncefield', this was pretty much it:

"Petrol and fuel oils for a large part of south-east England is traded through the Buncefield Oil Terminal near the Hemel Hempstead M1 motorway junction. An underground pipe-line brings the oil directly from tankers unloading at Canvey Island."

[onyx]

Good job -- if your spelling is not correct, I still know exactly the folks you mean.

[MJY1288]

:-)

[sageb1]

"I knew a blind guy who got a degree in computer science, so why not?"

One even shot a hole-in-one the other day :)

[Old Sarge]

I don't often get to ping the Terror List from Iraq, but this one just got to us.

Wonder if any of you can update us on what's happening.

At this hour, there's been a catastrophic explosion at the Buncesfield oil depot, IVO Hemel Hepstead, England, about 30 miles NW of London.

BBC and Sky News have reported secondary explosions and collateral damage to nearby buildings. Casualties have been mentioned, but no numbers reported.

[oceanview]

worldwide price of gasoline is going to skyrocket now - $3 gas will be back within 2-3 weeks.

[MJY1288]

Welcome to the Club :-)

[tcrlaf]

Latest From Sky: Local Reports.......

We live less than a mile from the depot. We were shaken out of bed by the noise and the vibration. most of the windows in the area have been blown in. There have been several later explosions. Staff on the industrial estate are being evacuated by the looks of things.

I am in Carshalton Surrey, and heard a plane flying overhead that did not sound right. This was shortly before the explosion, which we heard.

I live in West Ewell, Surrey. My husband and I both heard a very loud thud/crash around 6am this morning. We were both awake at the time. It shook the whole house. It must have been a huge explosion to have been heard in Surrey.

I live in Chiswick and heard a loud bang just after 6am. It was so loud that I thought my windows would break.

Standing on the driveway pouring water onto the car screen to defrost it and the blast rocked me back and forth and slammed my front door shut. We are in Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex.

We live in Rickmansworth and the explosion shook the house. I honestly though a plane had crashed in the field behind us. Loudest explosion I have ever heard.

[EternalVigilance]

"Petrol and fuel oils for a large part of south-east England is traded through the Buncefield Oil Terminal near the Hemel Hempstead M1 motorway junction. An underground pipe-line brings the oil directly from tankers unloading at Canvey Island."

Wow. Sounds like a juicy target.

[doug from upland]

In other news, Arnold may tell us soon when he is going to schedule an announcement to tell us that he will schedule a later announcement to tell us that he is still considering the Tookie clemency.

[Lancey Howard]

(From BBC News)

Oil depot blasts cause casualties

Three large explosions have taken place at an oil depot near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire.
Police say there are casualties. They are at the scene, said a spokesman.

The first blast happened at 0603 GMT, at the Buncefield oil depot, close to the junction 8 of the M1 motorway 10 miles from Luton Airport.

Residents up to 30 miles from the scene reported hearing a "loud boom". One eye witness told BBC News: "There are lots of houses damaged."

Witnesses said another two explosions followed the first at 0626 GMT and 0627 GMT.

The M1 near the scene has been closed in both directions.

'House shook'

Eye witness Sam Matton, who lives half-a-mile from the depot told BBC News: "The sky is sort of orange. The flames have got to be 60ft up in the air.

"I was in bed, I was actually having a bad dream and I thought the world had ended.

"The loft hatch in my house has actually fallen out, my neighbour's window has actually broken from the impact.

I am about three miles from where the explosion took place but I can see flames high in the sky and smoke billowing everywhere

Duncan Milligan

"There was a first major explosion and about three explosions after that.

Dave Franklin told BBC News: "We woke up at 0555 GMT. There was a massive loud bang which broke windows above us and to the right. The whole sky just turned orange and black.

"Several other neighbours said they did see a plane go into the depot."

Duncan Milligan, of Hemel Hempstead, said he was awoken by the explosion as his house "shook".

"There was a loud boom and the house shook violently.

"I am about three miles from where the explosion took place but I can see flames high in the sky and smoke billowing everywhere.

"There is clearly a building on fire near the motorway and police and emergency services are everywhere."

[Humidston]

Thank you for that kind remark, AW. I'm feeling the love!

But truth be told, that alarm is going to go off reeeeally early tomorrow morning. And since my eyelids keep closing, I've decided I'll just have to play catch-up in the morning.

'Nite all!

[doug from upland]

Thanks for reporting.

[emiller]

In Darwin's Origin of the species, he said that blacks were very near (evolution-wise) to apes, but he said there was one group that was even lesser-evolved. --the irish-- I kid you not. Guess who were the most highly evolved according to Darwin? The Scots. Surprise, surprise-- he was a Scot. ha

And so am I, so I'm not going to criticize his genius. :)

[Cindy]

Hi Old Sarge...Thanks.
Looking around on the net.