Brucefield Oil Depot fire

Guest speaker was Neil McNair who gave an illustrated talk on his experience as a retained part-time firefighter involved in one of the largest fires in the UK. As a child Neil was fascinated, like many small boys, with fire engines, an interest heightened by having an uncle who was a part-time firefighter in Inverary. Neil explained that some 90% of fire cover in the UK is provided by retained part-time firefighters, with only the large urban centres having full-time fire crews. In 1999 Neil joined the Hertfordshire fire service as a retained firefighter in addition to his normal employment, and was stationed at Harpenden, close to Luton Airport. Wakened by a large explosion in December 2005, he initially thought there had been an aircraft incident at Luton airport, and made his way to the local fire station where other crew members were arriving. On receiving notification of a field fire in the local countryside, they made their way to the advised location, noting large quantities of smoke rising. Being told that the location was in fact the Buncefield Oil Depot, Neil assumed an aircraft had crashed into the depot perhaps as part of a terrorist incident. Buncefield was known to the local firefighters as they had carried out  exercises there, pumping water from a local pond into the depot which was one of the largest in the UK. On arrival it was apparent that more resources were needed to address the fire taking hold in the depot which stored aviation fuel for both Luton and other regional airports. Initial duties were to check damaged buildings adjacent to the location for potential casualties, then the firefighters turned their attention to the fire. The explosion which had started the fire was the largest peacetime explosion since WWII and was heard as far away as France and Belgium. Fighting the fire exhausted all the foam supplies in Europe used for fighting fuel fires. The fire was extinguished after four days, though spraying foam onto the site continued for some twelve days after the initial explosion. The fire fighting exercise was to  involve  a total of over one thousand firefighters. There were no fatalities, though there were a number of injuries, mainly as a result of flying glass following the initial explosion. Bill Sutherland gave the vote of thanks.