The Buncefield Major Incident Investigation Board, which was established to supervise the joint Environment Agency and Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into December's devastating oil depot incident, has published a progress report. The investigation has been described as the most wide ranging of its kind since the Potters Bar rail crash inquiry in 2002. Early evidence has pointed to a mixture of petrol and air which ignited as being the cause of the explosions, however the sheer devastation caused by the disaster has held up investigators as access to the site has been difficult. Eyewitnesses have reported seeing a low-lying mist in one of the bunds housing the tanks near the neighbouring industrial estate on the west side of the site, which is assumed to have arisen from the evaporation of a particularly volatile fraction of an escape of fuel. The exact source of the fuel release is not yet known. The inquiry chairman told a news conference he was pleased with the start that had been made, but admitted much more needs to be done before the root causes of the incident can be identified.
In addition, a safety alert has also been published and provided to all UK COMAH operators and industry groups, which contains precautionary advice to operators of fuel storage sites. Those who have consents to store quantities of oil or other fuel which makes them subject to COMAH must revise their operations in the light of information gathered from the investigation so far.
