Buncefield

20 years ago on the 11th December 2005 I had just got up and was walking down our hallway when there was a massive explosion and it literally felt like the whole roof had been lifted off and landed back down again. The heavy wooden loft door was blown open and we later found it had buckled our patio doors.

I had just got up to get ready to go to church, we had to go in early, when the Buncefield Oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead exploded. We lived about 5.5km (3.5 miles) from there as the crow flies and I have never experienced anything like it.

Even though it was just after 6am our road was quickly filled with people trying to work out what had happened. We could see the flames lighting the sky and we immediately thought a plane had come down as we are quite close to Luton airport however over time it became clear it was something much bigger.

Once we started to find out what had happened it became even more real for me.

Up until a few weeks beforehand I had been working for 3Com in Hemel Hempstead. Their building is, sorry was, right next to the oil depot and the kitchen where I would make a cup of tea overlooked it. I would often look out over it while waiting for the hot water. This image gives an idea of what happened to that part of the building.

It was fortunate that it happened on a Sunday morning otherwise it would have been a much worse outcome.