angelophile | Europe's biggest peace time blaze

Fire crews are to begin fighting Europe's biggest peace time blaze after a wave of explosions ripped through a fuel depot.

A spectacular plume of smoke turned the sky black for 40 miles around after blasts caused widespread damage and started a blaze which sent fireballs shooting into the air early on Sunday.

Police said it was too early to say what caused the explosions, which injured 43 people, one seriously, although they said it appeared to be an accident.

The blasts, were heard up to 100 miles away and toxic smog clouds covered the same distance.

Andrew Catling was looking forward to a Sunday morning lie-in when the oil depot blast blew out the windows of his home with such force that he was hurled from his bed.

Mr Catling, 21, lives on Wellbury Terrace, on the outskirts of Hemel Hempstead, Herts, only half a mile south of the Buncefield depot, which is shielded from residential streets by a small wood.

The row of houses, in the shadow of a huge pall of smoke, looked like a war zone with all the windows blown out and curtains, roof-tiles and clothes scattered across the front lawns.

Christmas decorations lay strewn about living rooms abandoned as their owners fled the huge fire.

Mr Catling, a telesales operator, was one of those whose homes were evacuated by the police. He said: "The explosion happened at about 6.05am and shook the house so much I was thrown from my bed.

"I just remember all the car alarms going off. I thought at first it was a plane coming down because there was a whooshing noise at the same time. The explosion sucked the windows out. Everyone just ran out into the street.

"I ran out in my dressing gown. The whole street was there in their night clothes just staring at the sky. The whole skyline was on fire. I would say the flames were a hundred feet high and there were loads more explosions."

Chief fire officer, Roy Wilsher, said it was the largest fire he had ever seen.

"We have been informed by experts that this is possibly the largest incident of this kind in peace time Europe," he said.