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.

Anyway, where have I been?

An enjoyable weekend, although pretty sedate. Saturday night was the night of the Christmas meal for my acting group. There was about thirty or more people, we had an excellent meal just down the road from my parents place. Good fun seemed to be had by all and I chatted to a few people I hadn't seen for a little while and caught up. After the meal we had a disco, and karaoke which was excrusiatingly funny for the most part as people put down random songs for people to sing, meaning people had no clue what they were going to end up with. Funny a few times, but it wore a little thin after a few songs when people just didn't know what it was they were singing and slaughtered them accordingly. Luckily the disco went back on to finish the evening and everyone got to unwind.

Had a few drinks, a good laugh and slept til midday. I stayed with my folks, so yesterday pottered around with them. Went for a walk along the beach, where they're basically rebuilding the beach, replacing the groynes and adding thousands of tons of sand to the beach level. Weird to see it so high with sand after the gradual erorison over the last 20 years or so.

Sat and watched a couple of episodes of the BBC production of Dickens' Bleak House, which has been adapted, as originally intended, as a "serial" format, going out twice a week like a soap opera. It's a fantastic adaptation and the 8 hours running time has done it a lot more justice than any adaptation previously. A superlative cast, including Charles Dance, Gillian Anderson, Timothy West, Phil Davies, Alun Armstrong, Ian Richardson, and a wonderful Burn Gorman as Mr. Guppy. And it seems destined to make "SHAKE ME UP JUDY!" a national catchphrase.

EDIT: I've also suddenly realised that one of the central characters is played by Denis Lawson, AKA Wedge Antilles, so that's the geek factor catered for too.