BUNCEFIELD FIRE & NUKES: - Do you Trust Your Government?

Have you heard of the December 2005 'BUNCEFIELD FIRE'?

I guess this story went straight over my head at that time without any alarm bells.

Satellite Image Of Smoke Plume Following
 The 2005 Hemel Hempstead Explosion & Fire

Briefly - it was a very serious explosion & fire at a London fuel storage depot caused by negligence - poor maintenance and even poorer management.

If you have faith in the competence of responsible Establishment Authorities - read on this brief  British accident report from Wikipedia - or follow the Link for the full Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buncefield_fire
Causes

The Hemel Hempstead smoke plume on Monday, 12 December 2005.

The final report of the Major Incident Investigation Board (MIIB) was written in 2008 and released in February 2011.^[42] The investigation found that Tank 912 at the Buncefield oil storage depot was being filled with petrol. The tank had a level gauge that employees used to monitor the level manually, and an independent high-level switch which would shut off inflow if the level got above a certain setpoint. On Tank 912, the manual gauge was stuck and the independent shut-off switch was inoperative, meaning that the tank was being "filled blind" with petrol (i.e., being filled without a clear indication of the level). Eventually Tank 912 filled up completely, the petrol overflowed through vents at the top, and formed a vapour cloud near ground level, which ignited and exploded. The fires from the explosion then lasted for five days.^[42]

The investigation found that the level gauge had stuck at random times after a tank service in August 2005, but it did not concern maintenance contractors or site management. The independent shut-off switch was not fitted with a critical padlock to allow its check lever to work. Secondary containment (meant to trap the petrol in a retaining wall around the tank) failed and allowed petrol to flow out. Tertiary containment (drains and catchment areas to prevent release of spilled chemicals to the environment) also failed, and fuel and firefighting foam entered groundwater supplies. The investigation found secondary and tertiary containment to be inadequately designed and poorly maintained.^[42]

Wider management failings were found by the investigation to have contributed to the explosion: management safety checks at the site were found to be deficient and not properly followed. Site staff did not have control over the flow rates and timing of two of the three inlet sources, meaning that they did not have enough information to properly manage the storage of incoming fuel. Further, overall throughput had increased, reducing wait times further and shifting the emphasis to process operations instead of process safety.

- Failure upon Failure upon Failure. - So you still trust your Government with stuff like nuclear weapons and nuclear power?

They didn't release the report until more than FIVE Years after that Buncefield explosion.

How do you feel about the Grenfell Tower fire?

 - Anyone in prison yet?

Marty K.