Buncefield fire 'a day I'll never forget' says Hertfordshire firefighter

A firefighter who responded to Buncefield fire in Hemel Hempstead in 2005 says it was almost like a warzone.

The fire started at a fuel depot causing more than 100 million litres of fuel to be burned into the atmosphere with large clouds of smoke covering southern England which could be seen from satellites in space.

As a result, thousands of residents near the site were evacuated with properties damaged up to 3km away.

Hertfordshire Fire Service yesterday marked 20 years since the huge fire with stories from those who experienced it first-hand.

"It sounded like a jet engine was going off"

The blasts of the explosions measured 2.4 on Richter scale and was heard in several countries, such as France and the Netherlands.

Group Commander, Keith Harland said: “I've not been to a war zone, but from what I've seen on telly, the devastation was a bomb had essentially gone off.

“It wasn't a bomb per say, it was a gas explosion of petrol vapour but that's the only way to describe it. I've not seen anything like it since.”

He added: “What really took me back that day, other than the visual devastation, was the sound of the fire. People hear the phrase ‘roar of fire’ and the roar of that fire was so significant that it sounded like a jet engine was going off in your ear constantly.”

Around 1,000 firefighters tackled the fire over four days and managed to bring it under control with no loss of life or major injury.

60 members of the public sought medical attention, and 36 members of the service suffered minor injuries

Keith also says he feared for the worst when he arrived on scene:

“If I'm being perfectly honest, when I turned up and looked at the devastation, I expected there to be casualties and potential fatalities.

“We were going into buildings not even knowing whether anyone was in there or not. As it transpired, through luck or miracle, whatever you want to call it, there was no one in there that was injured or fatally killed.”

Adding: “I'm proud of our response. I'm proud of how everyone come together and the residents of Hemel who were really supportive throughout the incident, despite many of them suffering damage to their homes. I'm just proud to be a Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service Officer”.

'Changes made since Buncefield fire'

Hertfordshire’s Chief Fire Officer, Alex Woodman says “I do think things have changed since the incident. Our relationship with Buncefield, the way that we train, the way that we test, the way that we exercise - we know there are risks and it is our responsibility as the Fire Rescue Service to be ready for those risks.”

“We invest significantly in the way that we train all of our firefighters, the equipment that we give them, the way that they operate.

“We have to be ready for many scenarios, not just a scenario like Buncefield, so we look at risk across the county. We are ready for any incident that we are asked to respond to”, he adds.