Buncefield fuel depot Explosion
Buncefield fuel depot Explosion
(OP)
Can't seem to find any other posts about this (amazingly enough) ... MASSIVE blast at Buncefield fuel depot near Hemel Hempstead North of London in England.
"The man in charge of investigating the massive fires at a Hertfordshire oil depot on Sunday says the flames may have destroyed all clues to the cause.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has visited the scene of the blasts which injured 43 people, two seriously.
The fire chief described the incident at the Buncefield fuel depot near Hemel Hempstead, after 0600 GMT, as possibly the largest in peacetime Europe. " ...
more here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4517962.stm
Plume can be seen on satelite images eg the plume is the brown smudge in this MODIS image from 11:50Z 11/12/2005
h ttp://www. waw.net.au /gallery/v /wz/Ref-ex pl-11-12-0 5-1150Z-25 0m-crop_00 1.jpg.html
Comments from anyone in England?
"The man in charge of investigating the massive fires at a Hertfordshire oil depot on Sunday says the flames may have destroyed all clues to the cause.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has visited the scene of the blasts which injured 43 people, two seriously.
The fire chief described the incident at the Buncefield fuel depot near Hemel Hempstead, after 0600 GMT, as possibly the largest in peacetime Europe. " ...
more here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4517962.stm
Plume can be seen on satelite images eg the plume is the brown smudge in this MODIS image from 11:50Z 11/12/2005
h
Comments from anyone in England?
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RE: Buncefield fuel depot Explosion
I have no information about the details so this is pure speculation, but I would think that this needs to be a vapour cloud explosion to be so powerful. That means a release of volatile vapour, and mixing with air, before ignition. I can't see how this scenario could arise in a tank farm with floating roof tanks, without pressurised storage, as I understand it. A wild guess would be that one of the products was over spec on vapour pressure and this caused one of the tank roofs to sink, and allowed vapour to form a cloud above the tank. But there is no evidence yet available that I know of. We wait with interest.
RE: Buncefield fuel depot Explosion
HAZOP at www.curryhydrocarbons.ca
RE: Buncefield fuel depot Explosion
Phorth and OWG appear to have evidence for their postulated nature of the blast amply provided there.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: Buncefield fuel depot Explosion
RE: Buncefield fuel depot Explosion
The following link provides some additional photos that are quite spectacular.
http://www.herts.police.uk/
RE: Buncefield fuel depot Explosion
RE: Buncefield fuel depot Explosion
Click images for larger res versions
Yesterday
Today
Thanks to MODIS Rapid Response system for the images
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Read the Eng-Tips Site Policies at FAQ731-376
RE: Buncefield fuel depot Explosion
The tanks involved in the fire are most of the tanks in HOSL west (most of which are fixed roof) plus the big one in the lower left hand corner of the picture owned by British Pipeline Association (also fixed roof) plus one of the three other bigger tanks owned by BPA (also fixed roof).