Buncefield Investigation Board publishes Final Report

On 11 December 2008, the Buncefield Major Incident Investigation Board published its Final Report and announced the conclusion of its work. The announcement came on the third anniversary of the incident at Buncefield Oil Depot.

On 11 December 2005, a number of explosions occurred at the Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal, generally known as the Buncefield Oil Depot. The explosions were of massive proportions. Fire engulfed most of the site and burned for several days, emitting large clouds of black smoke into the atmosphere. Forty-three people were injured. Significant damage occurred to both commercial and residential properties in the vicinity, and a large area around the site was evacuated.

Lord Newton of Braintree, the Chair of the Buncefield Major Incident Investigation Board, said: “This final report captures all of our important work in over three years in a single publication for the public record. It provides an authoritative summary of the incident and of the Board’s role and work, and brings together for the first time our seventy-eight recommendations into one place. This includes some new elements, for example information on economic impact and the mechanism that produced such a severe explosion at Buncefield. We trust it will prove an invaluable reference document about this major and very serious event.”

Over the past three years the Board has produced eight reports and responded to three Government consultation exercises of relevance to Buncefield. It has provided advice to the HSE, the Environment Agency (EA) and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) on important preventive measures arising out of the investigation, and completed a review of the policies and procedures for regulating the Buncefield site.

On 1 December 2008 a decision was announced by the HSE and the EA to commence criminal proceedings against five companies following the explosion and fire at Buncefield.

To view the Board’s reports into the incident at Buncefield please click here