Buncefield: Fog of vapour 'behind oil blasts'

A fog of petrol fumes and water vapour 200 yards wide moved across the Buncefield oil depot minutes before December's blasts, according to a preliminary report from investigators. But exactly what led to the cloud or caused it to ignite is not yet known.

The devastation from the blasts, which wrecked the depot in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, and caused major damage to homes, has held up investigators.

The blasts injured 43 people, but no-one was killed. The investigation, which was ordered jointly by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Environment Agency, has been described as the 'most wide-ranging' of its kind since the Potters Bar rail crash inquiry in 2002.

Eyewitnesses have reported seeing a low-lying mist by one of the protective 'bunds' surrounding petrol tanks at the west of site, near the neighbouring industrial estate, prior to the first blast on 11 December. Taf Powell, the lead investigator at the Buncefield site, said: 'This mixture flowed very quickly and ignited with the force we have seen.'

HSE has also revealed it was investigating a similar, but smaller, leak at the depot two or three weeks before the blasts.

The safety watchdog has notified more than 1,000 fuel storage sites, including 100 oil depots of the same type as Buncefield, of a safety and inspection drive. But residents are angry that the HSE is investigating its own performance in the run-up to the blast, and are demanding a public inquiry. The report team has been accused of operating behind closed doors. Mike Penning, Tory MP for Hemel Hempstead, said that HSE was in effect 'investigating themselves'.

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