AN EXPLOSION at an oil distribution terminal in southern England ignited Europe’s largest peacetime fire on Sunday. But the cold weather and the ferocity of the blaze have kept health risks to people across southern England surprisingly low.
The explosion at the Buncefield depot in Hemel Hempstead, 40 kilometres north-west of London, which supplies fuel to the capital’s airports, occurred just after 6 am, injuring 43 people and damaging local property. It created a plume of smoke more than 3 kilometres high, which soon spread over a large part of southern England.
While the cause is still unknown, eyewitnesses reported…
