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Buncefield report urges similar sites to make immediate safety checks
Sites similar to Buncefield have been issued an urgent warning to make checks on a type of safety system that failed at the Hertfordshire oil depot.
Families were left homeless and 43 people were injured in a series of blasts at the depot in December. In May safety investigators reported that a fuel tank had became full but gauges and safety devices designed to cut off the fuel supply did not work.
A government report said inspections at Buncefield had made "good progress". A separate Environment Agency investigation is continuing into the recent leakage of 800,000 litres of contaminated water - used to put out the fire - into the River Colne, a tributary of the River Thames.
The government report was published on Thursday by an independent Investigation Board, appointed by the Health and Safety Commission to supervise the investigation. It summarises information from three earlier progress reports on the investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Environment Agency, which is still continuing.
Investigators looking into the fire have made good progress towards identifying its root causes, said the government. Minister for Health and Safety Lord Hunt said the Investigation Board could now set out a chain of events on the day. But he said there was still uncertainty about why the blast had been so violent.
"It is of paramount importance to ensure all the lessons of Buncefield are learned," he said. "I am fully aware of the need to give local residents and businesses directly affected by the incident answers to resolve any uncertainties."
Chairman of the Investigation Board, Lord Newton of Braintree said although knowledge of the incident was still incomplete, three areas where action was needed had been identified:
- Design and operation of fuel and oil storage depots, with the Buncefield incident involving failures to contain fuel at three levels;
- Emergency response to incidents. Although the board was "very impressed" overall with the response to the incident, lessons could still be learned, they said.
- Advice to planning authorities on developments round such sites. "This is a complex issue requiring a balance to be made between the risks and benefits of development," said the report.
Earlier this month the HSE issued a safety alert to other firms storing oil, fuel and hazardous substances, in light of discoveries made during the Buncefield probe, said the report.
"Enquiries into the workings of the high level safety system to prevent tank overfill have indicated that certain aspects of its installation and testing are critical in ensuring that it works properly," said the HSE warning. Operators were advised to carry out immediate checks where similar switches were fitted to storage tanks.
A storage tank at Buncefield was overflowing for more than 40 minutes before it exploded, causing a 32-hour inferno. Fuel was piped into the tank for 11 hours before the blasts on 11 December.
The investigation, the biggest health and safety inquiry since the Potters Bar rail disaster in 2002, began at the end of January.
The probe into the leakage of contaminated firewater is being carried out by the Environment Agency, which was informed of the problem in June, along with Thames Water, which operates the facility at which the water is being stored.
Some 26 million litres of firewater has been stored at two sewage treatment works since the blasts. It is the responsibility of the oil firms Hertfordshire Oil Storage Limited and British Pipelines Agency to find an environmentally-sound solution to its disposal, said the Environment Agency. The agency is awaiting a formal submission from them about their preferred disposal option, said a spokesman.
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