The buncefield explosion was colossal - the blast registered 2.4 on the Richter scale, followed by the largest fire of its kind in peacetime Europe. Three and hundred and fifty neighbouring businesses had to flee their premises. The investigation by the Health and Safety Executive is likely to be the most wide-ranging of its kind since the Potters Bar rail crash in 2002. The explosion is estimated to have cost pound;200m, including pound;100m damage to the depot, pound;20m of lost fuel and pound;50m damage to the industrial estate. For the construction industry, the explosion provides a wake-up call in respect of disaster recovery and health and safety matters. In the wake of the Buncefield disaster, the CBI has called on companies to assess their business risk and improve continuity planning. One of the measures that the CBI advocates is to back up data regularly to another location. For contractors, this also applies to documents such as health and safety files and asbestos registers, which are usually kept on site for easy reference. However, at Buncefield, some buildings were so severely damaged that they were too dangerous to enter to retrieve the health and safety file.
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