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'Massive' explosions strike oil depot near London airport

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  • 'Massive' explosions strike oil depot near London airport

    LONDON: "Massive" explosions have struck an oil depot, owned by Total and Texaco, near one of London's main airports, filling the sky with orange flames and shattering windows and damaging roofs at nearby homes, police and witnesses said.

    Police said there had been two or three explosions at the Buncefield oil depot in Hertfordshire, northwest of London, about 20 kilometres (10 miles) from Luton airport, just before 6:00 am (0600 GMT).

    A police spokeswoman said they have no evidence to suggest that massive explosions at an oil depot near one of London's airports were "caused by anything other than an accident."

    "There's nothing to suggest at this stage this is anything other than accident, although we're keeping an open mind," a spokeswoman with Hertfordshire police told AFP.

    Casualties were feared, the police added.

    The depot is a joint venture between Total UK and Texaco, according to a Total spokesman.

    "We're doing everything possible to support the emergency services and we're working closely with them to bring the situation under control," a spokesman said on BBC television, without saying whether there were casualties.

    The blast was so powerful that it was heard as far as west and south London and, closer to the scene, blew the roofs off houses, according to Richard Ayres, a witness told BBC television.

    "It's like it's doomsday," said Ayres, who was watching the inferno from about 500 meters (yards). "The words I'm getting from friends of mine, they've actually had their roofs blown off the houses."

    "We woke up around five to six and there was an absolutely massive loud bang," Dave Franklin, who lives about a kilometre (half-mile) from the depot, told BBC television.

    "It actually broke two windows in the flat above us... There are just flames everywhere. Orange flames. The whole sky has just turned orange and black."

    Other local residents said they could smell a powerful scent of fuel, and that their first thought was that an aircraft might have crashed.

    "I thought we'd been hit by a thunderbolt," another witness said.

    Luton airport is used for budget and charter flights to destinations in Britain and abroad. The area is also close to the M1 motorway which links London to the north of England, a section of which was immediately closed.

    A reporter for Sky News television said he heard a "low, loud rumbling" near Saint Albans, the biggest town in the immediate area, at around 6:00 am (0600 GMT) followed by a "massive" explosion.

    Orange flames and smoke could then be seen in the sky up to a great height, just east of the town, the reporter added.

    Other witnesses reported hearing up to four separate blasts over the course of 30 minutes.

    One witness told Sky News that the force of one blast blew in windows at a hotel near Saint Albans, which is around 25 miles (40 kilometres) north of the British capital, with some injuries reported.

    - AFP/ir

  • #2
    "The words I'm getting from friends of mine, they've actually had their roofs blown off the houses."


    Thats crazy.. I hope the whole thing is only an accident...

    Btw this is an off topic article
    Inactive from May 1 2009.

    Comment


    • #3
      My dad flew back from LHR today too MAN and he said the sky was just pure black,when he flew over there he couldn't see the end of the wing !

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      • #4
        I hear now it was only 4x less powerful than Hiroshima, very powerful!

        Some scary images :|






        Amazing.... but in a very bad way .

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        • #5
          And a few more:





          Looks like a war zone

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          • #6
            Holy gazooly.. That tower of smoke doesnt look good to our environment.

            Call The Greenpeace. Lol..
            Inactive from May 1 2009.

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            • #7
              Holy....Crap....
              sigpic
              http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?userid=170

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              • #8
                Damn, those pics are impressive, yet very scary.

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                • #9
                  holy shit, those pics are scary!

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