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'When Jon Smith felt the whole 1 he immediately knew that some
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The explosion at Buncefield made news around the planet. But for hauliers near the site, the end of the fire was the start of their problems.
Bridget Carter assesses the cost.
It was 6.03am and what Smith, the commander of Hemel Hempstead fire station, had just felt was the start of an incident that was to dominate his life and those of his tire crews for the next three days.
The oil depot at Buncefield had been wracked by three explosions, creating a shock wave that measured 2.4 on the Richter scale and sent smoke and flames billowing skywards.
Smith climbed from his bed, listened to the fire service radio to find out what was going on then drove towards the vast pillar of black smoke, wondering what lay ahead.
Fire Crews were already on their way as calls for help came streaming into the fire control centre. At first two fire trucks were dispatched, then two more. A further eight trucks were on their way before a message came across the radio declaring the blast a major incident. Before long. 150 firefighters were on hand to begin dealing with peacetime Europe's largest ever explosion.
Within 20 minutes, Smith was on the scene organising his firefighters he quickly realised that what they were dealing with was absolutely unprecedented: -When I was driving up I was less calm.Then, when I got there, it was like an organised and calm chaos. The worst thing would have been if someone was missing.
In its disaster training, the fire service had planned for a worst-case scenario at the
Buneefield oil distribution centre by assuming that the largest storage tank was on fire. But here was a fire raging in about 20 tanks leading to an explosion that had damaged buildings 3km away.
"The size [of the fire] was a complete unknown to us all," he admits."If only one of the largest tanks had been involved we could have dealt with it we could have put it out in half a day. Because it was 20 tanks, it was an extreme situation."
Firefighters used some 600,000 litres of foam, despite initially having only enough foam to attack the inferno for an hour. Emergency supplies had to he trucked in from all over the UK.
Water supplies were also a problem. The initial blast had destroyed all three lire pumps on site. so the lire service had to use a small lake 2.5krn from the fire, bringing in special highvolume pumping equipment to get it out.
The lire wasn't finally extinguished until 5 January.
Emergency plans
Smith says that the fire service has already incorporated lessons learned at Buncefield into its emergency plans but he isn't sure what would he done differently in future because in his opinion the fire service did everything it could.
"The extent of the fire was so unique that we couldn't have planned for it," he adds. "If we had to practise for something on that scale we would need half the UK fire service."
Smith dismisses criticism by the firelighters' union over how the incident was dealt with as a --cheap shot" and a political manoeuvre.
Despite the scale of the fire, only 60 people
were hospitalised. Of those, only two were firefighters one injured in a fall and another with foam in his eye. However. Smith is well aware that if the blast had happened in the middle of the week, things would have been massively different: -On a weekday there would potentially have been fatalities and hundreds of people wounded."
Effects of the fire
The media carried graphic reports of the lire, the fumes, the noxious gases and the possibility of fuel shortages following the Bunceficld explosion, What has gone largely untalked about is the confusion, frustration and devastation that the explosion has created for the transport operators based around Hemel Hempstead.
Fixing up smashed and shattered buildings, dealing with insurance companies and fighting bureaucracy left a mountain of problems for the local business community to climb.
Because the disaster struck at the busiest time of year, thousands of pounds worth of profits went straight down the drain.
There was the upset and stress for business Owners of standing at a cordon, knowing that the fire raging in the distance had torn into shreds everything that they had owned and worked for.
For some companies. there was virtually nothing left standing. The most disturbing part of the problem, according to the operators caught up in the disaster.was the uncertainty.
The area is blighted by acres of mangled wreckage and streets lined with the shells of factories some that were brand new. Then there's the noise of cranes trawling through rubble and deserted car parks where
workers' cars would have been parked.Theres a lifeless feel to the place and the look of a war-torn city.
Many companies are questioning whether to return to Buncefield for psychological reasons, quite apart from the financial problems.
Some have been the victim of looting. Others still operating in the area are being hit by the fact that some of their biggest customers. based alongside them on the industrial estates, have moved away and taken their business with them.
Assessing the damage
At Keystone Distribution UK, which services all of McDonald's UK restaurants, MD Paul Pegg says he does not yet know the total cost of the devastation.
His building, which is still evacuated, was just 400m from the epicentre of the explosion. Straight after the blast he relocated all 350 of his workers to St Albans and other parts of Hertfordshire.
There were up to 100 trucks on site and while the fleet was checked for damage, around 70 vehicles were hired in. In the end, the only damage was smashed windscreens.
Like everyone else who saw the devastation at close band. Pegg remains grateful that the explosion happened on a Sunday: "We thank our lucky stars there weren't any casualties.The blast was very. ye ry powerful.
"Our building was a concrete, steel-based building. Although it wasn't blown down, there was structural damage to it which means in the foreseeable future it isn't usable because of the health and safety risk."
Pegg says engineering and insurance reports will determine whether it will be viable for his business to return to the site: "I think it'll be another month before that is concluded. We're talking about very significant damage which will cost millions of pounds to repair."
Cheetah Couriers, not far from Keystone, is a family business that has been built up over generations. All the owners live close by: they live, breathe and sleep their courier company.
"We have lost about five major customers out of this,says operations director David Woodage. They might or might not come back. We've lost about 20% of our business."
The company had 11 vehicles parked on site at the time of the blast.
Woodage recalls that the day of the explosion was overwhelming: "It was just the different emotions we were going through. It was shock to start off, then distress because many of us didn't know what we were going to do. That turned into sheer anger because we couldn't check what was left."
Watching events unfold on TV on what was supposed to be the busiest week of the year was strange and frustrating for the staff of Cheetah Couriers.
Their building was not totally destroyed, but it did suffer t600,000 worth of damage: We were relieved that we still had a building, although it was sheer luck."
While the insurance will cover he building. Woodage says the loss of customers and loss of profits is going to make things tough not least because the company has to relocate while the building is repaired.
What's more, if the repairs are not completed within a year they will no longer be covered by the insurance company.
Relief fund
Sue Pritchard, Cheetah's financial director, explains: "It's horrendous. You're treading water. You know you can't stay here... it's the not knowing."
David Furnell owns FurneIlTransport,which is j ust 250 yards from the explosion.There were about 100 trucks on site and the explosion has done a lot of damage.
He is now focusing his efforts on helping the local business community get back on its feet.
The Mayiands Business Network is holding meetings about recovery for local companies. Furnell has been part this process and hopes that some sort of relief fund can be set up to help those worst affected.
Funnell managed to run his business from home during the disaster, using mobile phones, hiring in vehicles and using his computer, until he was able to get back into his base on the Tuesday night. He says that the transport companies nearby will not only be suffering the effects of lost business—they will also be paying out huge repair bilk as they are not adequately covered. •