Photos from Hemel Hempstead this morning.

[MattMoore]

Hi all,
Those of you that have seen the news this morning will have heard about the fire at the buncefield oil depot at 6am this morning.
the depot is only about 3 miles away from myself, and i took some photos of the sky at the moment with the clouds of smoke, thought it might be of interest to some.

It seems that all of the petrol stations in Hemel are closed too, I just got off of the phone to my mum who said the queue for a texaco garage was nearly a mile long!!

Cheers all

Matt

 

[Knot Competent]

Glad you're OK, and hope the smoke isn't toxic.

Regards, John

 

[syntec4]

Keep the windows Shut

Nice pictures.

I've just been watching news 24. Looks very bad.

Glad you're ok.

lee.

 

[RogerS]

It seems that all of the petrol stations in Hemel are closed too, I just got off of the phone to my mum who said the queue for a texaco garage was nearly a mile long!!

Glad to see that old panic buying mentality is still going strong.

Seriously, amazing that there have been no fatalities. You can smell the kerosene in Central London now.

 

[Howjoe]

The bang woke me up this morning, but didn't realise what it was until I turned the news on!

The petrol stations are chocker block around here with panic buyers :roll:

Cheers,

Howard

 

[frank]

do all the cars in london run on aviation fuel then .should the garages give out :sign3: sickers.

frank

 

[stonebas]

Terrible event and grateful there weren't more casualties. I'm impressed with the qualities of your photos though. What camera were you using.

Regards

Stonebas

 

[Howjoe]

do all the cars in london run on aviation fuel then .should the garages give out :sign3: sickers.

frank

The cost of fuel leads me to believe so!

Cheers,

Howard

 

[MattMoore]

the camera is a konikaminolta dimage 3.3MP i was quite suprised too actually, although im in the market for another one, probably the new sony 8.1mp when thats released

 

[SammyQ]

Does anybody remember Flixborough? Deja vu for us 40-somethings. I thought the "lessons learned" etc would mean we never saw this kind of thing again. But then, wasn't Cork (Cobh?) harbour before Flixborough?

One thought as a practicing Biologist....for all you downwind of the plume, is there any particulate deposition? I don't mean ash as we know it, just that there might be some really odd petrochemical leftovers falling as solids. PM10's are found in diesel exhaust AFTER the 'CAT' and other exhaust treatment, so what price untreated, less than efficient burning of whatever was in the blazing tanker farm?

I'm emphatically NOT trying to start hares of all medical proportions, but it occurs to me that, for example, washing the car after this is over should not be done where the waste water runs into a soakaway on your property. Similarly, if when all settles, you wash your windows, I would NOT re-use or dry out the cloths used. I'd chuck 'em. Anybody got a water butt? I wonder out loud if its contents are 'kosher'?

Please, please, if there is a sensible industrial chemist out there reading this, who can tell me it is a load of old hoey, fine, take your best shot. Otherwise, what harm is there in taking a few simple and relatively easy precautions?

Take care in the morning rush hour folks, better 10 minutes too late in this world rather than 10 years too early in the next.

Sam

 

[Drew]

I've been watching the news about the fire and while my heart goes out to the people who live anywhere near it really has left me seething.

The same mealy mouthed A*******s who are reporting on our brave firemen and women and the risks they are taking are the self same ones who reported on the fire strike with the slant and all the emotive words firmly against them.
As for that lying fat ******* prescott he should be shipped out to the fireground and have it pointed out to him that the people he betrayed are still on the pointy end up to their ears in crap for a pittance and still getting mucked about.

Sorry about flinging the rattle out of the pram but as an ex-fireman with a brother still in the service the hypocrisy really galls me.

Still I hope everyone down there is ok and they knock the fire down soon.

Drew :x :x

 

[Shadowfax]

I've been watching the news about the fire and while my heart goes out to the people who live anywhere near it really has left me seething.

The same mealy mouthed A*******s who are reporting on our brave firemen and women and the risks they are taking are the self same ones who reported on the fire strike with the slant and all the emotive words firmly against them.
Drew :x :x

Oh, well said! As an ex firefighter too, I couldn't agree more!
I still work as a fire specialist now and this sort of thing really gets to me.
I believe Mr Prescott has been to the scene to do something but I doubt if it was at all useful!
Lets hope the job does not go on too long. That sort of thing is really punishing for those up close.
My thoughts also go out to those who have lost their homes and businesses.
Cheers.

SF

 

[Adam]

Careful chaps, we creeping into politics now, and thats a non-starter on this forum I'm afraid.

If we could divert away from the more delicate issues you clearly feel strongly about that would be appreciated!

Adam

 

[RogerS]

Very, very slightly off-topic but me and the missus were flying into Gatwick a while back. As we were descending, I murmured 'Ooops'. The missus said 'What's up?' and I explained that by this time I would have expected the flaps to have been deployed but I'd heard nothing. Sure enough, no sooner had I said this then the pilot came on the intercom and announced the very same.

'No cause for alarm', he said. 'Just means that we'll be landing at a slightly higher speed than normal'.

Slightly higher? More like flying speed!! As we came in on finals I have to confess I held my breath..you could see the fire engines and emergency services lined up down the runway for us. We screamed onto the runway (metaphorically..not literally) and hammered down the runway with the good old pilot standing on the brakes as much as he dared.

We finally stopped and parked away from the main buildings ('Just waiting for a gate' fibbed the pilot). Not so, I said to myself, it's just in case the tyres/wheels don't catch fire. After about ten minutes cooldown we taxied to the terminal buildings where yet another fire engine was waiting for us 'just in case'.

And the point of this wee story? Well, I was really, really glad that we were coming into a UK airport as I know that our emergency services (fire, ambulance etc) are just so damn well trained and so utterly professional.

 

[woodshavings]

I know that our emergency services (fire, ambulance etc) are just so damn well trained and so utterly professional.

What Roger said.

John

 

[Howjoe]

I know that our emergency services (fire, ambulance etc) are just so damn well trained and so utterly professional.

What Roger said.

John

Yep, totally agree. I've got a firegfighter mate who is over there at the mo and a cousin who's a policeman doing his bit there too.

Cheers,

Howard