Sunday, December 11, 2005
UK OIL BLAST
Massive explosion at an oil terminal north of London:
“There was a loud boom and the house shook violently,” said Duncan Milligan, of Hemel Hempstead, who said the blast woke him up. “I am about three miles from where the explosion took place but I can see flames high in the sky and smoke billowing everywhere. There is clearly a building on fire near the motorway and police and emergency services are everywhere.”
Nine news reports an unknown number of casualties. A mechanical flaw is the early suspected cause.
UPDATE. The oil terminal in question was last in the news five years ago. It once attracted a UFO:
In August 1976, a craft hovered over Buncefield Oil Terminal nr Hemel Hempstead for several minutes before vanishing. The report - No.35 in the PRUFOS records - noted: “Checks with Luton Airport ruled out conventional craft.”
In the 1920s, the site was home to the Leverstock Green Cricket Club.
UPDATE II. Blogger Gemmak:
The Buncefield oil terminal in Hemel Hempstead, where it is reported this morning three massive explosions resulting in casualties took place, is only 300 yards from the home I shared with my ex-husband ... many of my friends still live in the vicinity ... My parents, eight miles away heard and felt this explosion, which was powerful enough to move items in their house.
UPDATE III. Bag of Bears reports that the BBC is pursuing an aircraft angle:
Sky news really does have the edge on the BBC these days. It’s quicker to get eye witness accounts on air, quicker to get camera/video pics onto screen, yet in its on air discussion cooler in discussing the events. At a time when no one knows whether it was a catastrophic on site failure or an external factor causing the explosions, coolness is a quality worth having.
For example, the BBC Breakfast programme interviewed someone who explained that he had listened in to the Luton Airport control tower (pretty sure he may want to hide that apparatus now). The BBC anchor lept straight in with “So before the explosions you’re saying you heard a plane?”. The caller then patiently explained once again what he had in fact said.
The airplane theme is one the BBC keeps coming back to, but is rarely mentioned on Sky. Sky has only mentioned “a gas connection” and quotes the police as saying they didn’t regard it as a “sinister event”. Perhaps the BBC should watch Sky. I don’t mean to be harsh to the BBC, but there is something wrong at the moment with their news gathering generally, and it’s difficult to tell whether it’s the structure, the editors or their guidelines.
UPDATE IV. An unconfirmed report claims eight people may have been killed.
UPDATE V. The scene from two miles away:
There was a long low rumbling sound like thunder, as the shock-wave hit the house the loft door lifted up and clattered down.
I went out into the street and there was no-one else up. There was a strange pulsating glow in the sky. I’m within 2 miles of Buncefield Oil Terminal and the sky is now quite eerie, the sun is rising and has turned a strange sulphurous yellow. A huge black plume of smoke is hanging over my house.
That earlier report of eight fatalities appears to be wrong:
A series of explosions which tore through a fuel depot north of London before dawn on Sunday injured 36 people, four seriously, police said.