Ot - Big Blast At M1 Junction 8

[+Alibags]

Link!

 

Blimey!!, getting a pretty good view of the pall of smoke from my garden. I think I will have to temporarily disable my cache at the M1 junction. Hope nobody was hurt.

[+Cave Troll and Eeyore]

Watching on BBC News24 it is horrendous.

We hope no cachers are affected and that there is no loss of life

[+Write and Mane]

Just watching the News, had just been checking on how Alibags Event went yesterday.

 

Join others in hoping casualties are few

 

Thoughts with all in the area.

 

Mane

[+2202]

Felt and heard it in Oxford! the bed did indeed shake.

First thought that it was local, but heard no sirens so put it down to a mini earthquake.

And we were all 6Km from it last night. No signs of the smoke this way.

[+Just Roger]

I was actually reading this forum when I heard the bang and I am 35 miles away north of MK. It sounded as though a big bird had flown into the conservatory but unlikely as it was still dark.

 

Add my hopes to those of others for thesafety of all.

[+The Bongtwashes]

Must be one of the nearest cachers to the fuel depot, being about a mile away. The whole house shook! Unable to go caching today, as we've been advised to keep doors and windows closed, and to stay indoors, also most of the roads are closed, so don't want to get in the way of the emergency services.

[+Alibags]

I think TDW is the nearest, he is less than 1/2 mile away. He has been my 'war correspondant' from the front line this morning. The fire is HUGE!

[+Nellies Knackers]

Thanks for the info guys,my days plan has definately been modified.

Never see news on a sunday so wouldn't have known otherwise.

Hope TDW doesn't have too many probs.

[+The Cache Hoppers]

I was talking to TDW this morning in the chatroom less than an hour after it happened. He's about half a mile away, and is fine, although concerned for his parrots. Liane

[+Learned Gerbil]

Smelly smoke arrived in South London at noon and I am about 30 miles away -

[+Pharisee]

I never heard the 'bang' (a combination of effective double glazing and an alcohol induced coma ) but I can certainly see the smoke on the horizon from my back door up here in Luton.

[+ANDYBUG&LADYBIRD]

The Bang woke Andy up-he thought it was our dodgy boiler giving up the ghost!

We can see the smoke from here in Luton too

[+badger]

I got called into work as a result of this explosion. Still getting information about it now.

Matt

[+third-degree-witch]

All my birds and livestock are alive,VERYdistressed but alive.The fire is WORSE now (15.50hrs)than the initial aftermath,i got within 300 feet of the epicenter and the whole area is gone..I saw the mushroom cloud rise at 06.00hrs,about half a mile away from my house.

I know the area well but couldnt tell you what factories are still there or gone,such is the destructive power.Ive seen rivers of molten aluminum running down the road.Whole buildings have simply vanished or are now non-descript piles of twisted steel and metal.

I was on the scene within 20 minutes and a security guard from the site told me he saw a streak of light in the sky before it went BOOM.As i type the flames are 300+ feet high and at least 500 yards across !

[+Bekandian]

Taken by Bekie 1.5miles from ground zero at 15:21

 

 

Strange thing is, although we are only five miles from the blast we didn't hear a thing, and talking to others in Berkhamsted, neither did they?

 

Jon: Can you confirm whether the cemetary has been damaged?

[choccymandm]

Strange thing is, although we are only five miles from the blast we didn't hear a thing, and talking to others in Berkhamsted, neither did they?

We live in front of Dunstable Downs and although we got a little bit of pressure/wind rush, there was no explosive noise. I only noticed it as I was awake and getting ready for work, a bit of a woosh of wind, the cat flap rattled and that was it ... Mrs M slept through it!! So it might be a geography thing? The Downs sheltered us from it, Berko sits in a valley, yes? I wonder if that sheltered you guys?

[+kbootb]

It's been like a nuclear winter in North London, directly under the smoke trail. Drove about 5 miles north and it was a bright sunny day, but on driving back you could see the solid edge to the cloud and coudn't see the sun through it. The frost did not lift all day.

 

I love to plot a map of the areas that heard the explosion. The sound would have hit the inversion layer, bounced down, then reflected up, then down again.

 

So you should see a number of rings where the thing was heard, and regions between where there was nothing.

[+Eckington]

FWIW, and it might be irrelevant, but SE Berkshire had a thin pall of high level dark cloud until about 1400hrs..............

[+Moote]

Well if I knew no better I would say this looks like a standard days sky in Manchester to me

[+The Bongtwashes]

Well if I knew no better I would say this looks like a standard days sky in Manchester to me

That sky looks a lot clearer than any time I've been to Manchester.

 

Where we live, in NE Hemel, just north of the B487, we've had glorious sunshine all day, just a massive pall of black smoke from a mile away. Now that it's got dark again there is a pulsating orange glowin the sky. Lucky for us all the smoke is being carried away from our direction, I certainly wouldn't like to be on the other side of it

[+Simply Paul]

If there was anything to hear in Aylesbury, I slept through it. I did get a great view of the cloud as I went into London on the train though. A great bonfire's worth of black smoke rising 10,000ft or more before getting drawn-out into a long, broad bank. Impressive in a Hollywood way - Best wishes and good luck to anyone effected by it.

 

SP

[+Learned Gerbil]

Well if I knew no better I would say this looks like a standard days sky in Manchester to me

But it was bright sunshine behind me - ever seen that in Manchester?

[Da Rubber Chicken]

GOOD LUCK TO EVERY ONE EFFECTED OR INJURED BY THE TERRIBLE EVENT

[+Moote]

Well if I knew no better I would say this looks like a standard days sky in Manchester to me

But it was bright sunshine behind me - ever seen that in Manchester?

To be honest, I have done many consultant jobs in the south east of England and the weather is very similar. Rainy Manchester is more a myth than fact.

[+Learned Gerbil]

I thought it was you who made the original comparison.

[+Mr Burns]

It's been like a nuclear winter in North London, directly under the smoke trail.

Not supprised- here's a bit of chatter from another group i belong to (cold war research group/Subterranea Britanica):

 

> Having been woken by the oil depot explosion (we're about 15 miles

> away) and hearing that folk half a mile away have had their front

> doors blown in, it occurs to me to ask if anyone with a blast

> calculator would want to hazard a guess as to the size of the

> explosion!

 

I don't have a blast calculator, but I do have a picture of one in

Beneath the City Streets! (1983 Granada edition, page 33.)

 

This shows a calculator set for a 12MT ground burst.

 

It shows the outer limit of Zone D damage (glass and tiles) at 21 miles

radius. I'm assuming that doors get blown in at about the same

overpressure (0.75 psi) as glass and tiles.

 

Thus the effects radius was about 1/42nd of a 12MT ground burst.

Assuming an inverse cubic law, the ratio of the yields would be 42 ^ 3.

This gives a yield for the Buncefield bang of about 0.16 kT.

[+third-degree-witch]

Bekandian.........Cant say about the cemetary.that area is covered by smoke & fire,Area is sealed by police now.I will attempt to find out tomorrow for you,

[+Us 4 and Jess]

are you and your animals ok jon?

 

we have not heard from you for a while we were not sure if you had been evacuated

 

keep us updated and let us know if your ok

 

speak soon

 

nose on...nose off

 

Mandy

[+Bekandian]

Writing this from work:

 

We have now lost our NTL Net Connection and TV, apparently customers in the HP1,HP2,HP3,HP4 and WD1 postcode areas will be experiencing degraded or total loss of service due to the Buncefield fire.

 

No ETA for it to be restored either!

[+sTeamTraen]

Edit (post was rubbish)

Edited December 12, 2005 by sTeamTraen

[+The Ollies]

I was just getting ready for work when we heard and felt the blast. It woke Ollie Mum and it made our loft hatch slam. I thought it was thunder until Pieces_Of_Eight phoned to tell us that it was the fuel depot. I was so surprised that we could experience such noise and force as we live 12 miles away and the view from work at the airport was quite spectacular.

At the moment we have an aircraft which is having some major structural work being undertaken and it is being supported on jacks at numerous points. When the shock wave hit the hangar, the people working on that plane thought it had fell off the jacks and were running around checking all the lifting points. A few hearts skipped a beat here also. I've heard it measured 2.4 on the Richter scale although I can't confirm this as gospel.

Hope everybody near to the depot is not too badly effected and that casualties are slight and minimal.

[+Tyrolean Maid]

I live in Dunstable and was actually awake at the time of the explosion (probably not enough alcohol at Alibag's do ). Doors and windows rattled and shook, then there was a loud bang followed by absolute silence. When I heard the news later that morning I was amazed that the blast had such an effect so many miles away.

[+The Bongtwashes]

We have now lost our NTL Net Connection and TV, apparently customers in the HP1,HP2,HP3,HP4 and WD1 postcode areas will be experiencing degraded or total loss of service due to the Buncefield fire.

 

Our NTL connection in HP2 is still OK, for both CATV and internet broadband, although I can understand some ares getting cut off. The NTL offices etc. are on the Maylands Industrial Estate, so if any of their equipment goes down, then their engineers won't be able to get in to repair it.

[+The HERB5]

Does anyone have a caravan stored nearby ?

[NickPick]

I live about 3-4 miles away in Apsley, and got woken up by the blast. I thought it was boxes falling over in the loft. My neighbour thought it was a train crash as our gardens back onto the railway.

 

I only found out it was the oil terminal when my father in law phoned to chek on us at 8 o'clock.

 

Now the wind's changed the smoke is floating over my house, I hope I don't get too much soot and fallout when they try smothering it with foam.

[+Bekandian]

Well after 48 hours down time of TV and Broadband, we seem to be back up. In case anyone is interested the problem is that one of the NTL boxes was located in the blast zone and it has partially melted, which is why only some people were having problems. An engineer is on site at the moment rewiring things so with any luck it should be returning to normal (whatever that is!)

[Lactodorum]

I took this picture this morning while I was walking the dog. It was taken in Leavesden, about 5 miles south from the blast.

 

 

Let's hope it's cleared up by the morning.

[+badger]

That horizon is wonky!

[+Simply Paul]

That horizon is wonky!

It really was a big explosion, wasn't it!

 

SP

[+badger]

Big enough to knock the horizon out of kilter indeed!

[+The Bongtwashes]

You know, some people will do anything to stop their town being labelled "One of the most boring towns in Britain"

[+Nellies Knackers]

Apparently the blast was caused <snip.... Edited by Lactodorum to remove dubious comment...>, or were the oil companies trying to extract the volatile substances?

Edited December 15, 2005 by Lactodorum