Oil depot blast rocks houses

HEMEL HEMPSTEAD - Explosions tore through a fuel depot north of London yesterday, spewing out a huge tower of smoke and flame in what officials said could be the biggest incident of its kind in peacetime Europe.

Police said only one person was seriously injured and believed it was almost certainly an accident.

"There is nothing that indicates anything other than an accident," Bedfordshire Chief Constable Frank Whiteley told a news conference after Britons, still on edge from July bomb attacks in London, awoke to fresh images of destruction.

Eyewitnesses described a series of massive explosions at the Buncefield oil depot just after 6am, (7pm NZT) shooting flames and billowing smoke hundreds of feet into the air, smashing the windows of nearby homes and causing widespread damage.

A witness said the blast was heard 40km away in northwest London.

The county's chief fire officer, Roy Wilsher, said it was the largest fire he had ever seen and would burn for at least another 24 hours.

"We have been informed by experts that this is possibly the largest incident of this kind in peacetime Europe," he said.

Hours later, the sky was still blackened by a wall of smoke which had drifted miles across southern England and was big enough to be visible on space satellite images.

Some homes in the area were evacuated.

Police said there were 43 casualties but only one person appeared to have suffered serious injuries.

"At the moment it looks as if we got off a lot more lightly than you would expect with an explosion of this size," Whiteley said.

Officials said the explosions were unlikely to cause fuel shortages and urged motorists to avoid 'panic buying' of petrol. But witnesses reported queues of drivers at petrol stations, waiting to fill up their cars.

The Buncefield depot supplies petrol and fuel oils to a large part of southeast England, including Luton and Heathrow airports. Oil is brought to the depot, near the town of Hemel Hempstead, by underground pipeline from tankers unloading on the east coast.

A government spokesman said that when full, the depot holds five percent of Britain's oil supply, but they could not say how much it was holding before the blast.

He said oil industry chiefs were meeting to work out how to guarantee supplies from other distribution terminals.

"There is nothing to suggest there will be a fuel shortage as a result of this," Whiteley said.

The depot, the fifth largest in Britain, is jointly run by oil companies Total and Texaco.

Police said about half the plant had been destroyed. They closed the nearby M1 motorway in both directions, causing traffic chaos.

Britain has been on edge since four suicide bombers blew themselves up on underground trains and a bus in London in July, killing 52 commuters.

Car-loving Britons have also been concerned about petrol supplies since hauliers blockaded refineries in a fuel tax protest five years ago and brought Britain to a virtual halt.

People living in the Hemel Hempstead area were shaken by what they said was a bone-jarring blast.

Mike Carlish, who lives less than 4km from the Buncefield depot, said he had been woken by a "blinding white flash" and a blast so powerful it knocked plaster off the ceiling in his house.

- REUTERS