Case Study
Topic
Displaced Communities
Incident / Exercise
Incident: Buncefield Oil Depot Fire, December 2005 to June
2007
Background and Context
In the early hours of Sunday 11 December 2005, explosions at Buncefield Oil
Storage Depot, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire resulted in a large fire,
which engulfed a high proportion of the site.
Over 40 people were injured; there were no fatalities. Significant damage
occurred to both commercial and residential properties in the vicinity and
2,000 people were evacuated on emergency service advice.
The fire burned for several days, destroying most of the site and emitting
large clouds of black smoke into the atmosphere. Over 16,000 employees
within the adjacent Maylands Industrial Area were unable to access work and
92 businesses were displaced for more than one week. 17 were forced to
permanently relocate.
Overall, the explosion cost local businesses more than £70 million in lost
stock, lost revenue and relocation expenses.
How the Topic was Handled
The displacement of communities near to the site as a result of the
incident raised a number of key issues. For example, displaced residents
were particularly worried about pets left behind that would need feeding.
Other displaced residents had not taken personal items such as glasses,
medication and prescriptions with them when they were evacuated or did not
have access to important documentation (e.g. passports, insurance details,
etc.). The Community Recovery Taskforce, which co-ordinated the overall
community recovery, worked closely with the Police so that, where it was
safe to do so, residents could return home to retrieve some possessions and
key documents.
Following an initial public meeting, it was recognised that the business
and residential communities had to be treated separately. In terms of
residential communities, one of the significant features was that the
Community Recovery Taskforce was not only dealing with displaced, but also
a wide range of very different individual needs within those communities.
As a result, considerable efforts were made to listen to people’s issues
and to deal with displaced people as individuals. A community survey
undertaken by Dacorum Borough Council, shortly after the incident, was also
useful in assessing what people wanted and what was required in terms of
the community recovery.
A number of wider issues also had an indirect impact on dealing with
displaced communities. Whilst Hertfordshire County Council closed schools
in the area, on the advice of the HPA, this created a number of problems in
terms of childcare and disruption to normal routines in the wider
community. The decision to close libraries in the area, with the benefit of
hindsight, had also meant that a valuable route for the dissemination of
information to local communities had not been available during the initial
recovery stage.
By utilising existing support networks (e.g. resident support groups,
voluntary groups, etc.) which worked closely with the community, the
Community Recovery Taskforce was able to disseminate information. However,
getting information to people who were not in their homes proved to be a
key problem. Although there was very much a need for information, the
existing distribution mechanisms had not been established to cope with an
incident of such magnitude. Delivering information and leaflets to
residents was problematic as many residents had been dispersed into other
types of accommodation (e.g. friends and relatives or hotels), or simply
had no front door to post the leaflets through. It also proved difficult to
keep track of displaced residents in the longer term, as they came from a
variety of different housing backgrounds, such as local authority housing,
private housing and rented accommodation.
Lessons Identified
Dacorum Borough Council has identified a number of key lessons in relation
to dealing with displaced communities:
-
Ascertaining the needs of displaced residents is important. In
particular, there needs to be some form of help point whereby displaced
residents can log their specific problems. This would also help those
agencies involved in the recovery effort to address needs on an
individual basis.
-
In the longer term, there is a need to track displaced residents. Details
should be registered so that the various agencies are able to locate
residents, this is particularly important in terms of disseminating
information (e.g. when people can return home, updates on repairs, etc.)
-
There is a need to maintain public information points and helplines where
people can obtain help and information. As well as maintaining these
facilities, it is essential that the locations and numbers are publicised
widely.
-
It is important to keep up the level of engagement with displaced
communities. For example, it needs to be demonstrated on a regular basis
that the people affected have not been forgotten about.
Contacts for Further Information
Jacquie Campbell
Chair of the Buncefield Community Recovery Taskforce
Email: jacquie.campbell@dacorum.gov.uk
Emergency Planning Team
Hertfordshire County Council
email: emergency.planning@hertscc.gov.uk
Additional Documents
The
Buncefield Multi-Agency Recovery Plan (version 1.1) makes limited
reference to the initial visits made by the Deputy Prime Minister.
The
Report of the Buncefield Community Recovery Taskforce (December 2005 –
May 2007) provides a comprehensive overview of the community recovery to
date.
