The Fuel Depot Fire...

[DodgyAgent]

Hmmm. Makes you wonder how the present government would handle a national emergency.

Oh, we've seen how - foot and mouth.

wrong thread wendi

[DaveB]

Didn't realise so much was in Hemel Hempstead.

Dixon's HQ is there and is closed, Kodak's only facility for developing Kodachrome films is also closed and apparently destroyed, and As Seen On Screen (asos.com) has ceased trading temporarily due to the damage to their premises.

Good to see the Labour Party have a good Disaster Recovery plan in action. Must have been formulated for them by EDS.

Not to mention Northgate Information Systems. Backend database services for a number of large hospitals were hosted there, all gone up in smoke now. From the reports it appears Northgate didnt have a DR facility in place.

[Mailman]

Hmmm. Makes you wonder how the present government would handle a national emergency.

Oh, we've seen how - foot and mouth.

Stop your bloody crying!

The government is not responsible for every minute detail of your life. THese companies that had offices near this place is not the governments responsibility and the only reason companies like Dixons and Kodak had their offices there was because it was cheap to put the buildings there.

Mailman

[threaded]

Now we know why it was cheap...

[Fungus]

Yes, not whacko though but dead true (so someone in the pub told me in confidence) - Gordon Brown secretly arranged the whole thing to prop up the retail price of fuel and maximize his tax receipts.

The snag is apparently that depot only stored 5% of the UK's fuel reserves. So we can expect to see another two or three fuel depots go up in smoke before long

Seriously, makes you think though - That huge smoke plume, even allowing for "collateral combustion" i.e. of stuff other than fuel, is only what would be belched into the air over however long that amount of fuel would normally be used by vehicles. Only a week or two, or a month maybe?

Apparently the fuel all burnt very efficiently due to the heat hence the pollution risk is less than it might have been.

To be honest Luton could do with something like the depot fire. It could only improve the place. But I guess that even a petrol company would not stoop so low as to site a depot here.

Leif