At just after 6.00am on Sunday 11 December 2005, three explosions at the Buncefield Oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead led to what was probably the largest fire that this country has seen since the Second World War. For three days, up to 150 firefighters battled to extinguish this unprecedented inferno, under the guidance of Doug Robinson, the Area Commander for Watford and Three Rivers who was Operations Commander at the Buncefield fire site.
 | | Buncefield Fire: View from a deserted M1 |
Here he tells us how the blaze was tackled, the dangers they faced and pays tribute to the firefighters of Hertfordshire who worked tirelessly in difficult conditions to put out the fires. When did you get to the incident? Doug: I was actually off duty when we all heard the bang at 6.00am. I thought that it sounded like something serious and subsequently found that it was. I was called out by fire control later on that morning. What was it like when you arrived at the scene and what did you do first? When I arrived it was absolute mayhem. There was a cloud thousands of feet in the air about 200 metres in diameter. We’d planned for this for years, but not on this scale. It was just something that you couldn’t possibly describe. We had to really amend our plans because we would normally plan for one tank, the biggest tank, to catch fire but this was about 22-25 tanks. We had to make an initial assessment and it was very difficult because we had huge amounts of smoke, searing heat and obviously our prime concern was the safety of the firefighters. Most, if not all, of the firefighters there had never seen anything like this before and it was unchartered territory for them. But there was a lot of bravery out there. How did you tackle the fire? | "We have highly qualified, highly professional firefighters who were also tested and pushed under extreme conditions." | | Doug Robinson, Operations Commander |
We arranged ourselves into sectors, led by a number of command officers, and at one stage we had over 150 firefighters fighting the blaze – or blazes. The strategy was to fight one tank fire at a time while cooling the remainder of them. The Buncefield terminal consists of aviation fuel, diesel, and petroleum and they all have their own characteristics when they’re burning. There were huge fixed cylindrical tanks and the dangers were obviously of them exploding and exploding outwards so there was concern for the safety of firefighters. Was exploding tanks the biggest problem that you faced? Well that, plus the searing heat and the running fuel fires where the tanks had actually split and the fuel was alight and was running. So we had fires in the buns, we had fires in the tanks themselves and we had tanks that weren’t affected but they were being licked by fire and they were bulging. If you can just imagine that they were bulging, creaking and whistling and at some stage they would - and they actually did - blow. So we had to ensure that we were out of the way, retreating, while these tanks actually exploded and then we’d go back in again and hit them with our foam cannons. What help did you have from other sources? We had some assistance from other brigades and used foam stock from all around the country on a continual conveyor belt. We made sure that we had a massive water supply and we were using the high volume pumps supplied by the Home Office.
 | | Listen to firefighter Dave Humphries account |
Logistically it was huge, but it was very, very efficient and again, all credit to the command officers for ensuring that what was needed was there in time so that the firefighters could actually get on and fight the fires. What would you like to say about the firefighters that dealt with this incident? I’ve been in the fire service for 28 years and I have to say that we were tested to our limits. All the training that we give the firefighters, all the training that the officers get at the Fire Service College, their huge knowledge of operational incidents, command knowledge and management of people were all tested to the limit at this incident for many days. I’m actually proud to be part of the Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service who I think produced a very, very successful outcome in ensuring that the fire was extinguished – which was the first priority – and secondly that there will be no long term environmental issues for both the population, the community and the wildlife. This [the environment] is always, always taken into consideration. We ensure that water is always not polluted and that again is a credit to the crews that were there. Basically what I’m saying is that we were tested, there is no doubt about that, tested to the limit.
 | | The huge plume of smoke |
We were in unchartered territory. We train and we train and we have very competent fire officers who we send to the Fire Service College and we have highly qualified, highly professional firefighters who were also tested and pushed under extreme conditions. And although safety was always paramount, they worked in very arduous conditions to ensure that this fire, which was probably the biggest fire we’ve had in this country for 50 years, was extinguished successfully without any long term problems. Is there any indication yet as to what might have caused the fire – and what happens now? What will happen next is that the investigation of this will be carried out under the guidance and management of the Health and Safety Executive with the police and we will have an involvement in the investigation too. That will be in some time, but at the moment it [the site] will be completely sealed off which is normal practice and then when it’s safe to do so the investigation will commence. And now that the fire is extinguished we need to re-group and get all our resources back. Again, the mop up operation is going to be huge and we need to ensure that the fire appliances are back in position, where they should be, and all the equipment is maintained and tested to ensure that we’re back to full strength.
Listen to a first hand account of the incident from a firefighter at Hemel Hempstead station.
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