This was a topic I had running at the old place which I refreshed each year at this time.
Unfortunately I don't have any more the photos I took at the time after the fuel tanks exploded back on 11th December 2005, but here's a
brief resume.
Even though I only live 6 miles away as the crow flies, the noise of the explosion didn't in fact wake me up, but by 8 am, the smoke covered over 1/3 of the sky. After cycling over towards Hemel Hempstead, the police had all the access roads sealed off. One thing that really struck me (apart from the 200 foot high flames, raging smoke and the smell of course) was the big temperature change once you moved into the shadow of the smoke cloud. Outside it was a sunny bright day, but step over the line and it was still cold & frosty with the puddles iced over.
One year one, the site looked like this (the first photo of a warehouse is right next door to the site and had been due to open shortly after the blaze, and yet 3 years on, is still untouched).
Nothing had really been done at the site at all.
By December 2007, they had started to demolish the tanks and remove some of debris.
The office blocks right next door were still left abandoned
By the summer of 2008, they finished clearing the site so that now it is left just as an open empty site where the main tanks had been
They do seem to be rebuilding though, as some of the tanks on the far side weren't badly damaged.
The total cost of this disaster has been estimated at nearly £1 billion. However 3 years on, and for many residents, they still have not been
properly dealt with by the owners of the site. It was only the other week, following the conclusion of the official investigation, that criminal proceedings have now started against the owners & operators at the site. Up to now, they had effectively denied liability, with the main owner, Total Oil, maintaining until recently that they were only liable for any damage caused within 451 metres of the site - which, apart from the office blocks, would only cover 1 or 2 houses! Hopefully, once it goes to trial in January, compensation will finally be offered to the thousands of people affected.
