Progress on process safety since Buncefield

摘要

December 11, 2015, was the 10-year anniversary of the 2005 Buncefield explosion. The Buncefield fire was the biggest industrial explosion in the UK since 1974. The incident caused an oil storage depot in Hemel Hempstead to burn for four days, injuring 43 people. The tank had safety systems fitted to prevent overfilling but they failed. Petrol began to spill from the vents on the tank roof and formed a cloud of flammable vapour that was ignited by a spark, causing a series of explosions and subsequent fires. It took about 32 hours to extinguish the main blaze and much longer to put out all the other fires. Extensive damage was caused to surrounding commercial and domestic properties, and local environmental pollution occurred from the use of fire-fighting foam and the loss of petrol and diesel from the storage tanks. The widespread damage to the site also resulted in temporary disruption of fuel supplies in the South East.