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CFIVA MEMBER AT OIL DEPOT INFERNO
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
The Buncefield oil tanks ablaze, picture taken by CFIVA member Sean Vatcher at close proximity.
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A massive explosion and fire in a fuel depot at Hemel Hempstead, England broke out early on Sunday 11th December 2005. Miraculously, nobody was killed, even though there were a total of twenty fuel tanks at the site, containing millions of litres of fuel. Nine caught fire and burnt for days, the heat was so intense that tarmac was completely burnt off the roads and every drain cover was blown out of the ground in a two mile (4.5km) radius. At very short notice on Tuesday, 13th December, veteran fire fighter and professional photographer Sean Vatcher (40) was called in specially to take photographs of the fire fighting operation for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, who later attended the scene personally. Sean was thus required, armed only with his camera to approach the most dangerous areas of the operation, standing shoulder to shoulder with the men at the very forefront of the battle against the flames. His unique and extremely dramatic photographic record, three hundred shots obtained at considerable personal risk (one of the tanks unexpectedly re-ignited as Sean stood nearby) was used to brief government ministers, including Tony Blair and members of parliament the following Friday.
Seventeen different fire brigades involving three hundred fire fighters attended the biggest fire in Europe since the end of the Second World War.
Sean was the only official photographer at the site and was in action continuously for nineteen hours. When he finally returned home to his worried wife he was completely blackened by soot and stank of petrol. Seans courage exemplifies that of all those from the emergency and support services who attended the scene and risked their lives.
CFIVA
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