Buncefield explosion report

A report published in February 2011 into the huge explosion at the Buncefield Oil Storage Depot concluded that fundamental safety management failings were the root cause of the disaster. Five companies were fined a total of £9.5 million for their part in the explosion and five-day fire. With estimated costs exceeding £1 billion, it was Britain’s costliest industrial disaster. Failings included:

• an absence of clear and positive safety leadership or board level involvement and competence to ensure major hazards were properly managed;

• lack of clear understanding of major accident risks and the safety critical equipment and systems designed to control them;

• lack of systems or culture that should have been in place to detect signals of failure in safety critical equipment and to respond to them quickly and effectively;

• lack of time and resources for process safety; and

• lack of effective auditing systems to test the quality of management systems and to ensure that these systems are actually being used on the ground.