Buncefield: Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service's Review of the Fire ResponseThe Explosion and fire at the Buncefield Oil Storage Depot involved 22 tanks. The main fires were extinguished in three days but the overall fire response lasted 26 days and 642 fire appliances were moved to the incident. This report sets out the chronological sequence of events and reviews the fire response. It covers pre-planning and pre-training; the response of the Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service; the response by other fire provider and supporting organisations; and presents the learning points of local, national, and international significance, which are drawn both from good practice at the incident and the areas that could have been improved. |
Contents
Executive Summary | 10 |
Introduction | 12 |
Methodology | 15 |
The Incident | 17 |
Incident Command | 69 |
Fireground and Functional Sectors | 72 |
Appliance Equipment and Uniform | 95 |
Control Rooms | 109 |
Communications | 120 |
Welfare | 126 |
Health Safety 12 Preparedness | 137 |
National Programmes | 141 |
National Progress | 143 |
Conclusions Recommendations and Learning points | 145 |
Glossary | 151 |
Common terms and phrases
assessments attended Balancing Tank Bedfordshire Breakspear bund Chief Fire Officer commenced communication cooling jets decision deployed Dimension emergency Environment Agency explosions extinguished Figure Fire and Rescue fire appliance Fire Brigade fire response Fire Service College Fire Service Manual firefighting fireground foam attack foam blanket foam concentrate foam supplies FRSNCC FRSS fuel further gold command Hemel Hempstead Hertfordshire Constabulary Hertfordshire Fire Hertfordshire Resilience HFRS Control Unit HFRS crews HFRS officers HIGH VOLUME PUMPS hose lines incident command system Incident Commander Informative AS PREVIOUS initial inner cordon issues large number liaison London Fire Brigade M1 motorway main foam attack major incident mobilised Monday 12th multi-agency commands multi-agency silver Northgate building operational organisations personnel police procedures radio Recommendation Rescue Service scene Sector Commanders significant SILVER COMMAND specialist Sunday 11th December tankers TM OSCAR vehicles water supply WRVS