Major explosion in Hemel Hempstead - Page 3

**Damien** · 11-12-2005, 17:53

My friend was off to oxford today, I wondered if the smoke would affect the trip

Xaccers · 11-12-2005, 20:56

My images will be at http://www.sgcgb.com/hemel/

Give it a while as my ftp is playing up

Hom3r · 11-12-2005, 21:12

My old boss was woken up at 6 and thought it was in her house

---------- Post added at 22:12 ---------- Previous post was at 22:11 ----------

I can see an orangey glow in the sky off to the west but as it is foggy here couls be the street lights

handyman · 11-12-2005, 21:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xaccers

My images will be at http://www.sgcgb.com/hemel/

Give it a while as my ftp is playing up

What did you use to create the gallery?

Xaccers · 11-12-2005, 21:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by handyman

What did you use to create the gallery?

Adobe photoshop

Just re-uploading everything so it should be done in about 15 min

My gf works off of Maylands Ave, anyone heard if it will be open tomorrow?

Hom3r · 11-12-2005, 21:44

The local cinema in Hemel is showing Harry Potter for free for the kids (I thought they'd been scared enough.

harmonyinfo · 11-12-2005, 22:23

I heard it here this morning in Bracknell, Berkshire. Low boom, but nothing much more. Bit foggy tonight in the way to Wokingham, but don't know if that is related to the smoke.

SMHarman · 11-12-2005, 23:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by david.ewles

The news about it being heard 100 miles away/holland exageration?

I live in Harlow and have heard nothing!

Me too, Hertford, so 10 miles close - didn't hear a thing. Must be the way the wind blows.

quadplay · 12-12-2005, 09:07

As a result of yesterday's events, customers fed from the Hemel Hempstead headend will be experiencing loss of TV/broadband and maybe telco services. The ntl building, which is close to the oil storage site, sustained extensive damage in the blast, and engineers are unable to gain access until the fire is out and the building declared safe.

There is no estimated fix time for this...

Rik · 12-12-2005, 10:12

Just watched the news (skynews) I live in Hemel Hempstead, and they have just said that local business owners are going to be taken into the area to survey the damage, whether or not this means they will allow engineers to fix things I have no idea, lets hope so.

---------- Post added at 11:12 ---------- Previous post was at 11:09 ----------

A Few More!

**Chris** · 12-12-2005, 10:17

Did anyone see the two 'amateur documentary makers' BBC News 24 was interviewing yesterday? They ran the tape a few times during the latter part of the day. It was quite hysterically funny, despite the circumstances. They sounded like a British version of Wayne and Garth, commenting that the fire looked like 'Satan come down to Earth in the form of oil'.

They grabbed their camcorder and drove right up to the terminal, filming a tank that hadn't exploded (yet) from a field very close by. One of them explains to the camera, 'If that explodes now, we are going to die'.

SMHarman · 12-12-2005, 10:25

I did, was quite a sight to see.
What I also noticed about it, was that the quality of the footage from what must have been a miniDV camera was apart from the shakiness, broadcast quality.

**Chris** · 12-12-2005, 10:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by SMHarman

I did, was quite a sight to see.
What I also noticed about it, was that the quality of the footage from what must have been a miniDV camera was apart from the shakiness, broadcast quality.

Yep, but then even professional camera crews responding to news events in a real hurry, or in circumstances where a full-size digi-beta camera is impractical, have been using Sony miniDV equipment for some years now.

The article had a postscript observing the role the public now plays in newsgathering, thanks to the wide availability of digital still and video cameras. One thing that occurred to me was that the more this is so, the more likely it is that hordes of people are going to go legging it towards the scene of a disaster like this, cameraphone in hand, thinking about flogging their pics to the Sun. And then, of course, it's only a matter of time before one of them gets killed. For example, if that fuel tank had gone up while they were stood in that field, they would most certainly have been killed, if not by being shredded by flying metal, then by the blast wave.

Hom3r · 12-12-2005, 10:33

I had a friend who is a fireman, he said that some fires can be so hot that pouring water on to can cause it to fuel the fire, as it splits the hydrogen and Oxtgen atoms in the water.

(He may have been winding us up, but he was not the type to do that.)

BBKing · 12-12-2005, 11:22

Sounds rather unlikely to me, David. Oil fires can't be fought with water IIRC because oil merely floats to the surface and burns there. I have a suspicion that in a fire water would boil into steam and escape that way rather than split. Still not a lot of use though.