Right here, right now.....At a giant oil storage depot near where I used to live fire fighters are trying to control a huge fire caused by an explosion that was heard as far away as France and Holland.....Checkout BBC website for live footage...... This is in Hemal Hempstead, just down the road from Luton where I used to live before moving to Wales. It is also the HQ of BP and is used to supply aviation fuel to Heathrow, Luton and Stanstead airports. It is also a stone's throw from the M1 motorway which has been closed.

Message edited on: 12/11/2005 07:43

I'm glad you don't live there anymore..

yeah.. big fire ball bad

Attached Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/bb_wm_fs.stm?nbram=1&news=1&bbwm=1&nbwm=1&bbram=1&n

A link for you.....BBC Video footage

I was out cycling near Basingstoke today and you could see a plume on the horizon. This fire must be huge.

wow..of course you're taking pictures for textures, right?..;) hope everything's going to be ok.

I saw it at Skynews, the satelite photos show a huge black cloud over London. What luck it happened so early in the morning and on a sunday as not many people working there at that time and nobody was killed.

Been watching that on CNN

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Heard all the way into the Netherlands, damn, they said it was heard for about 100 miles away, the closest point from Hemal Hempstead to the Dutch coast is still 170 miles, Hemal Hempstead is 200 miles from where i live. Mind you, i have free view on the Botlek oil terminals, DSM, AVR (Waste burning facilities Rijnmond), a bit more to the east is Pernis, and to the west is Europoort, The port of Rotterdam houses the largest concentration of refineries, oil-storage, chemical plants, coal and ore-terminals on the European mainland. A strong reminder i guess.

Just heard about it on the news. Says some 40 injuries but no deaths. Witnesses say they heard a small plane flying before the explosion but authorities say they haven't seen evidence of foul play. That's some blast.

I've been watching this all day, even my husband in the Omani Desert has been watching it. They say rain is coming and will probably wash a lot of the particles out of the sky, and that they leave an oily deposit - worries me a bit about the M25. Especially as it's still burning and they say it could burn for at least another 24 hours. Despite the fact that the firefighters have begun to use the foam. For Thursday I mean - as I'll need to get to Heathrow early in the morning to pick Ian up... hopefully it won't be too bad by then. I also hope the panic buying stops as I don't have enough fuel to get to Heathrow in the car... Did you see the bit with the guy with his eye all bandaged up? He told a heck of a story. And what about the guy who was actually IN the depot when it all began? His story of the enveloping orange ball of light surrounding the compound and the force of the explosion as they ran for the gates - whooohooo! Nasty!

Update - Well the M1 is open now and they are going to leave things be until it's had more time to burn off tsome of the oil. I heard a report that said during the last week the roads around this depot were covered in a 'liqiud' and that foam had been poured over it.....go figure. My brother-in-law and his missus woke up at 6am and couldn't figure out why.....until they turned on the tv. They're about 10-15 miles away. The black cloud will probably get washed out of the atmosphere by rain....all over France...I don't have a problem with that...;-) Sadly there is a lot of damage to people's homes and Christmas will be ruined for them. The local mall is being used to house these poor folks, giving out free Big Macs and running the latest Harry Potter movie...on a loop!!!! Amazingly there are only 43 casulaties and no reported deaths!

Attached Link: http://www.mcnews.nl/index.php?action=fullnews&showcomments=1&id=6639

good there are no deaths, what caused the explosion? here in amsterdam we had a near dissater like this 2 weeks ago, when a roof collapesed from also a bp oil tank the petrol had to be pumped out during 6 hours while there was contiuous danger of explosion from friction from the loose hanging roof, luckily all went well. whole of amsterdam stank of petrol that day. odd thing is it was a bp tank too! Amsterdam: Lek in grote brandstoftank De wijde omgeving in de buurt van de Hornweg in het Westelijk Havengebied in Amsterdam is door de politie afgezet in verband met een lekkage in een brandstoftank. De tank staat op het terrein van oliemaatschappij BP. Dat meldt de brandweer Amsterdam donderdag. Dit bericht is geplaatst op 17 november 2005 om 21:59 door Mark.

I was born in Luton Bryster. That makes us pratically related, now wheres my Christmas present. Looks like a lot of people have had a lucky escape, could have been so much worse.

You wish, Orbital. I was born in Newcastle! LOL!

Yeah Bryster, I'm a long lost...very lost...cousin. Where's my Christmas gift? 0.o I'm so glad that there weren't any deaths...at least not yet. Feel terrible sorry about these folk's Christmas who have been put out. God willing, they'll be taken care of.

I'm glad to hear that it was not as bad as it had the potential to be. It will be interesting to know what caused this. My grandparents experienced an explosion near there home once. Its very unsettling. Hopefully, those who are displaced will get to return soon, and those injured will recover. PS Bryster, you can send me a gift even if we're not related ;P Hugs

Nice to know there's another Geordie on board, even if he has gone tappy lappy doon the lonnen to foreign parts.

Well Bryster, I may not be related, but since you were born in Newcastle you could put a little coal in all of our stockings. ;-)

Ang: I'll see what I can whip up.... Danamo: There's no coal left...... Dadt: a dina ken?

Bryster--" tappy lappy doon the lonnen " "Proceeded at more than average speed along the country lane"

Wow ... that's a bit ominous. I wonder how long it would take to render that picture ...

:^D

C'mon bryster wheres the christmas spirit. My Nan was from South Shields so thats gotta count!

Panic over - The fire's out...well more or less. Let's have a big hand for the fire-crews....(OMG what have I said?)

:)

Excellent job well done! Bravo! :)