Topic: Fuel Storage Explosion in England

[SteveD CB500F]

Don't know if this would make the world news but I was woken at 6am this morning (Sunday) by a bang that made the windows rattle.

Turns out a fuel storage depot in Hemel Hempstead exploded.  That's over 40 miles away !! According to the BBC, 20 tanks (each containing 3 million gallons) of petrol and aviation fuel went up.

The high altitude smoke reached here at lunchtime.

Here are some pics from the BBC News website...

[Phaedrus]

I read about that on Yahoo News this morning, right now they are saying it is an accident.  I hope it stays an accident.

[seabird]

My Wife both heard and felt the explosion (since we're only around 10 - 15 miles from Hemel Hempstead and the fuel depot-True to form, I slept through the whole thing  (some years ago, the South of UK was decimated by an Hurricane one dark night - ince again, I managed to slumber on, and finally crawled form my bed compalining about all the noise outside (as the Police attempted to turn the regular motorists who used our country road as a "Rat Run" around and send them back through town.

OK, that's it,....back to bed now....<yawn>

Terry
(in UK)

[cbjunkie]

woke to the news myself on BEEB radio - wrote my dad in Ryslip, but still haven't heard back yet...

they say it will burn for days - all they can do is "starve" it, they can't put it out.

looks like y'all will be turning to Chavez for some of that cheap heating oel this winter...

[Bob Wessner]

Made all the networks here in the U.S. this A.M. Just what you folks need, higher gas prices. 

[Sam Green Racing]

Sorry, ca'nt stop to post,.... off to fill my tank to the brim

[Bob Wessner]

cbjunkie,

Your avatar looks like something out of Jurassic Park. 

[SteveD CB500F]

Terry, the "hurricane" was October 1987.  I certainly didn't sleep through it as my greenhouse was being thrown around my garden and tiles were coming off the roof!

My son (now 18) was 6 months old - he did sleep through it!

[Sam Green Racing]

Although the blast could be felt 40miles away, only 40 people injured, and only 2 serieously. Unreal thank God.

[SteveD CB500F]

Here's a picture of the cloud over London (20 miles south)

[Jim Shea]

I didn't hear or feel it, but soon after the explosion the sky was very dark as the smoke cloud moved over my house, some 30 miles away from the explosion. The latest is that it was an accident and that petrol prices will not be effected!
I thought that Cbjunkies avatar was his mug shot? 

[seabird]

Terry, the "hurricane" was October 1987.  I certainly didn't sleep through it as my greenhouse was being thrown around my garden and tiles were coming off the roof!

My son (now 18) was 6 months old - he did sleep through it!

You see what an innocent mind can accomplish?

The fire isn't threatening anyone any longer, but the smoke plume makes the country it's laying over look as if it's in the grip of a Nuclear Winter.

Seabird

[Jim Shea]

Terry,
It must be bad where you are? It is still dark and nasty here!
Jim.

[ElCheapo]

So if it is an accident = the oil/petrol prices stay down
On purpose by some towel headed extremist = the oil/petrol prices sky rocket and oil companies globally make record profits?

Makes one wonder who owns who  I'd pay people to blow up my stuff if I could make record profits. 

So far your petrol prices stay down and that is good.

[Jim Shea]

If you consider 90 p a litre good? that's $6.8 per UK gallon! I hope I made a mistake on that conversion?

[ElCheapo]

Wow, Jim... I would hope you made a mistake too..?  My guess is problably not. 

[Jim Shea]

A few years ago when I lived in CA, I remember there was a huge outcry when 'gas' reached almost $1 per US gallon.
What is the average price now?
Btw, that 90p is for regular unleaded.

[Einyodeler]

Here in the midwest it reached $3.15 a gallon a while back.....now it`s right around $2.15 for regular unleaded.

[Jim Shea]

Stephan,
Great pic. We should send that to our friends the politicians here in the UK.
Jim.

[cbjunkie]

aaaack! squawk squawk ibi squawk!!  $2.09.99

[ElCheapo]

I wish mine locally was $2.09 US. The first born, they can have her.. but I need my limbs for riding the old bike

[eldar]

I would not doubt if that explosion is used as an excuse for raising the prices here in the USA. The excuse will be that more oil needs to go to the UK and thus our reserves will drop and blah blah blah. Maybe if people pushed more for high mileage cars, then oil companies will feel a good crunch and lower prices to keep people buying regular cars. We all really need to kick our politicians in the ass.

[cbjunkie]

instead of spending some of the money on research into alternative fuels, SQUAWK, the oil companies, newly laden with all our muthering cash from last year are spending it on takeovers - that way they will have less competition, more control.

32 billion dollar takeover, baby...BRAAK!

[Steve F]

Terry,
It must be bad where you are? It is still dark and nasty here!
Jim.

Jim, I did a GoogleEarth search for "Surrey, England" and came up with about 10 or so places with "Surrey".  Do you have LAT & LON coordinates of your town? Just curious where you're are in relationship to the blast.

[SteveD CB500F]

Steve,

search "Wokingham, England" for me and "Camberley, England" for Jim.

or "Rickmansworth, England" for UKCB750CAFERACERS which is almost 0 miles!

[Sam Green Racing]

Jimbo, your calculation was about right at $6-80 a gallon,.....yuck

[cbjunkie]

holy smokes, steve...i think i spotted ya   

[Steve F]

holy smokes, steve...i think i spotted ya   

Scary, Huh?

[oldbiker]

I guess you guys in the States can understand why we in the UK look for cars which do about 40-45 miles to the gallon. Maybe George W. is not as bad as Tony B.

[Bob Wessner]

Maybe George W. is not as bad as Tony B.

This should be moved to the Humor section. 

[Jim Shea]

It should be moved the dust bin/trash can...

[Terry in Australia]

Well, that'll teach you Limey bastards for installing that "Lucas" extinguisher system, ha ha! Oh wait a minute, I was going to be more sympathetic than that, sorry about that, I was thinking about that terrible fire, and then I started to think about ashes, then "The Ashes" and I got all angry and bitter again! Sorry about that, I'll try and be nicer next time...............

Now fuel prices in Britain have always been incredibly high, but to be fair (unlike English bowlers, those cheating bastards! Oops, here I go again! Sorry......) a UK gallon is 4.55 litres, whereas a US gallon is only 3.7 litres, so a UK gallon should cost about 20 percent more in the US, but as the average wage in Britain is about 25 percent higher than in the US, slowly that "enormous" difference in price is reduced.

Don't get me wrong, fuel is still markedly higher in Britain and Europe than the US or Oz, but as you're all rich bastards who can afford to buy half-decent cricketers from South Africa because you're all crap, then you can afford higher fuel prices, so suck eggs! Er, I'm sorry for that outburst, I better go and have a little lie down................ Cheers, Terry.

[SteveD CB500F]

On the basis that it costs the same (on average) per capita to run a modern Western democracy, each government is free to pay for this however they please. Some European governments like to take it all in income tax, ours likes to gather more from indirect taxes (like fuel tax) that tax the people who use the most, the US seem to take low direct taxes, local sales tax and then force everyone to pay for their education and healthcare.

What do the Aussies do Terry? (apart from lose cricket matches)

So the biggest loser is a visiting American in UK with a rental car (although we'll still treat him/her in our hospitals if they're ill as a special treat...)

[Terry in Australia]

What do the Aussies do Terry? (apart from lose cricket matches)

I'd rather you didn't mention cricket Steve, my doctor gave me a shot of something, and I've been feeling pretty mellow, until I read your post. Anyway, I digress. At the moment we're paying around $1.10 AUD per litre, so that's about $4.00 US per imperial gallon, or $3.20 per US gallon.

Not great, but even back in the 1970's when I visited Britain and Europe gas was twice as dear as Oz, I think it was just a tool devised by the British government to keep their ailing car industry alive, and to stop the Americans from crushing those horrible Hillman Hunters and Vanguards (urrrgghhh!) etc, under some decent V8 powered Muscle Cars! Cheers, Terry.

[SteveD CB500F]

The only "V8 powered muscle cars" that sell here seem to be those awful BMW X5s...  (I don't class my Jag as a "Muscle Car" - far too vulgar).

I drive my son's Ford Fiesta most of the time and when one of those slab sided monsters pulls up alongside I (rather smugly) ponder on the fact that a set of new tires will cost them more than my car!

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, fair one Steve, we're obviously not as fond of jags out here, old XJ6 and XJ12's are cheap to buy, and most people I know who've bought one pull the pommy boat anchors out of them and fit proper Ford of Chev small block V8's to make 'em go as good as they look.

Over here we can get our cars converted to LP gas for about $2000.00, and because the government wants us to use it rather than the refinerys burning it off like they did in Britain when I was there, there's bugger all in the way of taxes on the stuff, so we pay about 30-40 cents per litre for it, and the new Ford and GM-H cars have a "dual fuel" or "LP Gas only" option out of the factory now.

I tried to convince my boss to convert my Toyota work "Ute" (pickup truck) to LP gas 3 years ago, but head office didn't like the idea of spending 1800 bucks up front, anyway, they've just realised that if they took my advice they'd have saved just over 10,000 bucks in fuel, including the cost of the conversion! Ah well, not my money................. Cheers, Terry.

[Bob Wessner]

Ah well, not my money.................

That's what you think.