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Rantings of a Sandmonkey

Be forewarned: The writer of this blog is an extremely cynical, snarky, pro-US, secular, libertarian, disgruntled sandmonkey. If this is your cup of tea, please enjoy your stay here. If not, please sod off

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Huge Explosion in london

explosion Here is a possible terrorist attack if I've heard of one: "Massive" explosions have struck an oil depot, owned by Total and Texaco, near one of London's main airports, filling the sky with orange flames and shattering windows and damaging roofs at nearby homes, police and witnesses said. Police said there had been two or three explosions at the Buncefield oil depot in Hertfordshire, northwest of London, about 20 kilometres (10 miles) from Luton airport, just before 6:00 am (0600 GMT). _41109342_okflames The blast was so powerful that it was heard as far as west and south London and, closer to the scene, blew the roofs off houses, according to Richard Ayres, a witness told BBC television. "It's like it's doomsday," said Ayres, who was watching the inferno from about 500 meters (yards). "The words I'm getting from friends of mine, they've actually had their roofs blown off the houses." "We woke up around five to six and there was an absolutely massive loud bang," Dave Franklin, who lives about a kilometre (half-mile) from the depot, told BBC television. _41109278_explosion203_blurry Other witnesses reported hearing up to four separate blasts over the course of 30 minutes. No word on fatalities yet. Let's hope it's not really a terrorist attack though! Update: The police so far are saying it's an accident! But that's what the police always say at first. So, yeah, still nothing on the casualties front though. Update: 36 injured, of which 4 are seriously. Still considerd an accident so far!

4 Comments:

At 12/11/2005 02:29:00 AM, Blogger programmer craig said...

I think it is just an accident. But I only say that because terrorists seem to be after casualties, not destroying infrastructure.

That's what I'm hoping, anyway.

 
At 12/11/2005 05:47:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

One guy who was nearby said he smelled fumes before it went bang. (See BBC news site). That suggests an accident.____However, it could give somebody ideas. Terrorists in Iraq blow up oil pipelines every week.

 
At 12/11/2005 09:53:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

We will wait to see how this turns out.

Joanne

 
At 12/11/2005 07:23:00 PM, Blogger Papa Ray said...

Modern storage facilities and refinerys have automated controls and alarms. If a valve opens or shuts when it is not supposed to, or pressure drops or raises, other valves shut or open and alarms are sounded and many automated and human driven events happen in just a few seconds.

Its possible its an accident, but I saw that the fire[s] were seperated by quite a lot of distances within the compound.

I have lived around petro facilities all my life and I don't think this was an accident.

Not one bit.

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

 

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