| Submit your comments on this article |
| Britain |
| CCTV may hold key to cause of Oil Depot fire |
| 2005-12-13 |
| CCTV footage from the Buncefield oil depot could hold the key to what triggered the inferno after detectives discovered that security film survived the intense heat. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is due to investigate the causes of the blaze once the fires have been extinguished and the site is accessible to forensic experts, a spokesman said yesterday. But accident experts said that evidence suggested that the explosions at the oil depot, which are still being considered as accidental, are likely to have been caused by sparks from an electrical fault that ignited a fuel leak. Ivan Vince, an independent safety and environmental specialist at ASK Consultants, said that the size of the explosions was puzzling. âFrom my point of view as a combustibility specialist I would have not have expected such a spectacular explosion at a depot with fuel being stored properly in unpressurised containers.â Dr Vince said that it was likely that a slow leak of petrol had evaporated over time to form a large cloud of flammable vapour that had then ignited. Witnesses said that they smelt petrol fumes and were trying to locate the source when the explosion occurred, he said. The airborne fuel, once ignited, could have set off a chain reaction that led to the blaze in 20 fuel tanks, each containing millions of litres of fuel, he said. âTo me, whatâs interesting is how this fire and cloud could initially have made such a big bang. In an open space you would expect a flash of fire which would have burned out quickly, not a big explosion, so the flames must have spread to the tanks very quickly in order to cause the scale of the fire we have seen.â HSE guidelines state that petrol of the kind stored at the depot is a highly flammable liquid that can give off flammable vapour, even at very low temperatures. âPetrol vapour does not disperse easily and may also travel long distances. It tends to sink to the lowest possible level and may collect in tanks, cavities, drains, pits, or other enclosed areas, where there is little air movement.â Dr Vince said that another likely explanation for an explosion was that in such flammable conditions a small fire could have spread undetected to larger storage facilities or a pipeline like a lit touchpaper. âThere are many possible different ignition sources,â he said. âIt could have come from anywhere given the amount of fuel involved. It is possible that we will never find out what really happened.â While much of the forensic evidence is expected to have perished in the blaze, police and HSE investigators are relying on the accounts of staff and oil tanker drivers who were at the site moments before the tanks erupted, soon after 6am. One driverâs description of a sudden shutdown of the depotâs electrical system, just before the first explosion, suggests that it could have been sparked by an electrical fire. In addition, officers now hope that surviving CCTV footage could hold vital clues. Frank Whiteley, Chief Constable of Hertfordshire, said: âA lot of forensic evidence is going to have been destroyed which makes this job difficult.â |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #1 Not surprising that there's CCTV footage - the Poms (and the Aussies to a lesser degree, but catching up) just luuuuv their various cameras. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-12-13 20:25 |