Copyright 2005 Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail Ltd.
Firemens’ 60 hours in hell
By BRIAN FARMER
Daily Record (United Kingdom)
Fire crews finally put out the Buncefield oil depot inferno yesterday - after a 60-hour battle.
Chief fire officer Roy Wilsher described the blaze as “apocalyptic”.
And he praised the 600 firefighters who risked their lives over three days as “magnificent”.
But last night, the Fire Brigades Union claimed Wilsher’s brigade had been “woefully” prepared for such a task and called for a public inquiry.
All 20 oil tanks caught fire following a series of explosions at the depot in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, on Sunday morning. It was the biggest peacetime blaze seen in Europe. Last night, just a few minor fires remained to be doused. Crews will remain at the scene for several days, cooling the area to stop more fires.
Wilsher admitted the Hertfordshire brigade had based their training on the possibility of one fuel tank at the depot catching fire. But they were faced with 20 ablaze on Sunday.
Wilsher said: “We had not trained to fight a fire this large. Any lessons that can be learned will be learned. I have no particular concerns at the moment.”
But he stressed that the plan drawn up to tackle the blaze had been successful and no emergency service workers had been hurt.
FBU national officer Geoff Ellis said: “Hertfordshire Fire Authority was woefully prepared to deal with anything but the most minor oil fire.
“We would strongly support calls for a public inquiry and believe it is now inevitable.”
A union spokesman added: “The brigade has no policy or planning for dealing with any major incident requiring foam.
“It has no specialist foam vehicles and no large stocks of foam. There are no officers with specialist training to deal with a major oil fire.”
“It took over 24 hours after the start of the fire at Buncefield before there was enough foam for the fire to be attacked.”