Explosions at British oil depot

Explosions ripped through a key British oil depot before dawn Sunday, injuring 39 people and sending orange fireballs into the sky as well as a plume of black smoke over a swath of southeast England, including London. Police said the explosions near the town of Hemel Hempstead, around 25 miles (40 kilometres) northwest of London, appeared to be accidental, though many people in the area first feared it might have been a terrorist attack. Hospital officials said 39 people were hurt, including one seriously.

Police and hospital officials said it was "miraculous" that the explosions - which smashed windows and doors, ripped tiles of roofs, burned cars, and sent shock waves as far as London - did not cause mass casualties. Fires and explosions continued hours later, feeding a plume of thick black smoke that drifted southeastward, leaving dark streaks over the skyline of London, a city of around seven million people.

peakoil.com (thread), bloomberg.com :

The first blast occurred just after 6 a.m. local time at the Buncefield depot near the town of Hemel Hempstead about 20 miles outside of London. Buncefield receives gasoline, diesel and other fuels from Total's Lindsey plant about 150 miles away in North Lincolnshire, the nation's fourth-biggest oil refinery. On a normal day a tanker-truck is filled every four minutes at the depot, which also supplies jet fuel by pipeline to Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport. The depot is 60 percent-owned by Paris-based Total, and Chevron's Texaco Inc. has the rest. It handled 2.37 million metric tons of fuel in 2002, Total said. About 400 road tankers use the depot each day.

Downwind from the fire in London, a black haze drifted in the afternoon sky. Within five hours of the explosion, police said the blaze was under control. More blasts at the depot were expected later in the day, and police advised people living nearby to stay indoors to avoid the smoke.

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