Bloggers Cover Massive Explosion at Hertfordshire Fuel Depot

Posted on December 11, 2005

A huge explosion has occured at an oil depot north of London near Hemel Hempstead. The BBC reports that a fire chief described the massive explosion as possibly the "largest such incident in peacetime Europe". The explosion appears to have been the result of an accident. The oil depot held 3 million gallons of oil and could continue to burn for days. 43 people were injured including two "seriously injured" according to the BBC.

The blogger at Different Biscuit, Same Tin awoke to the explosion and says, "We're down visiting the folks in London again and at about 06.05 we're awoken by a thunder like rumble, the house shaking and the loft entrance flying open. As you can imagine there's much shouting back and forth between the rooms as to whats going on, there's a car alarm going off outside and several of the lights have flicked on in the houses opposite."

Pajamas Media has a roundup of coverage. Flagrant Harbour is livebloggingthe incident and downplaying terrorist attack concerns by some bloggers.

Some photos can be found here on Flickr and on the BBC story.