“The Buncefield depot is a major distribution terminal operated by Total and part-owned by Texaco, storing oil, petrol as well as kerosene which supplies airports across the region, including Heathrow and Luton.

The country’s fifth largest fuel distribution depot, it is also used by BP, Shell and British Pipeline.”

“The fire chief described the incident at the Buncefield fuel depot near Hemel Hempstead, after 0600 GMT, as possibly the largest in peacetime Europe.”

Photo by Gridlock


Photo by innkue

“The fire, which police believe was an accident, could burn for another day.”

Photo by Today is a good day

“About 2,000 people living near the site have been evacuated, while police have advised others to keep their windows and doors closed because of fumes”

“290 people have gone to a leisure centre while 50 others have been offered bed and breakfast accommodation.”

Photo by Today is a good day

“Many houses have been damaged, with some reporting feeling effects from the explosion as far away as Oxfordshire – while it was heard in a number of counties and even France and the Netherlands.”

Photo by Gridlock

BBC Story
More photos: Hemel Hempstead And Beyond Photo Pool

In 1991, and again in March of 2003, oil fires became a serious environmental concern. In 1991, it was the Kuwait oil fields, set ablaze by Sadaam Hussein. In March of 2003, it was the oil fields in Iraq itself, also believed to have been set on fire by Sadaam’s people.

This satellite imagery shows some of the burning oil wells of 2003. The intense, black smoke created a litany of environmental and human concerns, one of which focused on the carbon dioxide released by the smoke.

The Carbon Cycle is something every living thing (people included) is part of, but most people have never heard of it. Simply put, the Carbon Cycle is the cyclical exchange of carbons between atmosphere, ocean and biosphere. There are many stores, or “sinks”, of carbon, and many ways the sinks exchange carbon. Photosynthesis is the most well known aspect of the carbon cycle, though the process doesn’t end with carbon dioxide and water being made into food for plants. From there, the cycle continues. An animal eats the plant. The carbon dioxide, which has been transformed into glucose, is ingested, and the animal becomes part of the cycle. Carbon is then emitted from the animal either through various bodily functions (exhaling, etc.), or through death of the animal (decomposing bodies emit carbon dioxide). So the carbon in released back into the air and the process starts all over again.

An event like the Iraqi oil fires raises concerns because the Carbon Cycle is what’s called a closed cycle. In other words, the carbon never goes away, it is merely transferred, in various forms, from one thing to another. So when an abundance of carbon is released into the atmosphere by something like an oil fire, we’re stuck with that. Those carbons are now a permanent part of our environment and eco-system.

In a November, 1998 Department of Defense news briefing, Lt. General Dale Vesser (ret.) stated that the effects of the Kuwait oil fires (at least to humans) were negligible.

“….the exposure in Kuwait during the oil well fires…to many of these substances was lower than it was in Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix or Los Angeles during this same period of time.
Now why is that? The oil well fires burned so hot, first of all, much of this material was lofted high. But in addition, much of the material was destroyed, so there were fewer contaminants left after the fire because the fire burned so hot.”
Source

Based on this statement, it seems safe to say the effects of the Iraq oil fires were negligible to humans as well. However, long-term effects are still being assessed, and short-term effects were clear: people with asthma and other respiratory conditions found those conditions to be aggravated when exposed to the smoke and soot created by the fires.

There is also concern about something called a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), which is produced during the incomplete burning of oil, gas, or coal. PAHs are believed to be carcinogenic and have been the cause of reproductive problems and birth defects in laboratory animals. Some laboratory mice also passed these problems on to their offspring. In addition, PAHs can contaminate the water supply. They don’t readily dissolve in water, but rather, sink to the floor of rivers and lakes. Certain types will pass through soil and contaminate ground water, thus becoming a potentially more dangerous part of our eco-system as it can then be absorbed by plants, and eventually by animals and/or people.

Another official government statement claimed that the carbon particles released into the atmosphere were too large to be absorbed into the lungs or skin. Good news for U.S. troops and Iraqi citizens, potentially bad news for the rest of us.

One effect of an increased release of carbons is an intensified “greenhouse effect”. Carbon dioxide interferes with the Earth’s natural heat radiation. It essentially blocks heat rays, keeping them here on Earth. Consequently, a greater amount of carbon dioxide means more heat is trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The Greenhouse Effect, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. The Earth’s eco-system was intentionally designed with a certain amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It’s one of the factors that make this planet conducive to life. The problem is that we’ve been producing more and more carbon dioxide. And remember, the Carbon Cycle is a closed one, so the excess we produce sticks around. This means that all the additional carbon produced by the Iraqi oil fires hasn’t dissipated, and never will. It’s now a permanent part of the cycle.

Debates will undoubtedly continue with regards to the true effects the Iraqi oil fires have had, and are having, on people and the environment. Some will claim there were no effects at all, others will make it sound as though the world is coming to end. So we may never know the absolute, untainted truth, but we do know this: excess carbons were released into an environment that’s already becoming carbon-heavy, and some of what was released is potentially toxic. And despite the fact that some carbon sinks (like the ocean) absorb more carbon than they release, we find ourselves dealing with an unnatural balance.

NASA’s earth observatory reports on the seasonal fires currently burning the forests of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. In the image above you can see hot spots detected using the infra-red heat emissions of the flames.

In slash-and-burn agriculture, you first go through the thick tree cover with a machete and chop all the vegetation. That’s the slash. Then, you come back a few days or weeks later, when the vegetation has died and dried out a bit, and you start a big fire, like this one. That’s the burn. It’s happening on the edge of an undisturbed area of rainforest in the Amazon basin in Brazil.

Ideally, you would farm the cleared area for a few years. Once the soil loses its fertility, slash and burn farmers would typically leave for a few years and allow the area to regrow. This doesn’t happen anymore, and the net result is poor soils and deforestation.

Does this kind of development bring economic prosperity?

“…whenever he cleared the rainforest, the rain washed the fertility from the soil, and within a couple of years the cultivated portion of the plot had to be abandoned, and new areas of forest cleared for planting. He became yet another shifting cultivator in the Amazon rainforest.”

“Life has been hard. As each plot became exhausted, they moved on. But were soon forced to return. And each time the soils were worse, the weeds grew higher and the crops grew less well. With little cash for fertilisers and other inputs, the growing number of farmers were clearing huge areas of rainforest, leaving behind a trail of eroded soils, degraded vegetation and broken dreams.” in the field

From a teacher in Brazil:

“Burning fields and pastures is very common here in Brazil. There are two reasons for it: bugs, rodents, snakes etc. and the acidity of the land. On our little farm, we could only convince the field hands to stop burning once we showed them how to use chemicals – fertilizers and insecticides – which got into the lake and caused minor disaster.” Katarina Berg via Tropical Poison

The area that people deforest in Brazil every year is rising again. In 2005 it will pass the peak set in back in 1995.

It’s turned the Amazon basin into a major source of pollution.

The Mato Grosso state’s governor is also the agriculture tycoon Blario Maggi, (known locally as “O Rei da Soja,” the King of Soy) who clears rainforest to grow soybeans. Maggi is the largest producer of soybeans in the world. Mato Grosso led all Brazilian states in deforestation with 48 per cent of the destruction last year, feeding Brazil’s booming Soya industry.

Recently, Maggi ousted his environmental chief, who was arrested and accused of involvement in corruption, and suspended the issuance of new logging permits.

“He acted after federal police made 90 arrests government officials and businessmen connected to loggers. Among those arrested was Moacir Pires, head of Brazil’s federal environmental protection agency in Mato Grosso.”

I suspect that Maggi would be a tough man to work for.

“Authorities allege those arrested were responsible for the illegal clearing of nearly 50,000 hectares of Amazon rainforest over the last two years, much of it on native reserves and national parks.” cnews

"According to news reports from the Montreal Gazette, more than 80 lightning-triggered fires were burning across Quebec province in Canada on June 2, 2005. As many as 18 of the fires were burning out of control. Throughout the territory, hundreds of people were forced to evacuate their homes as a precaution, and vehicles were being escorted in convoys along sections of highways that were closed due to smoke." earth observatory

Those of you who remember the Southern California wildfires from 2003 will appreciate this photo. Although to be fair wildfires happen every year here when the grass turns golden, this conflaguration was legendary and carries the distinction of being the costliest disaster to ever befall California, “exceeding all previous fires, earthquakes, and natural disasters.” According to the USGS, “future fires of this magnitude are to be expected in these shrubland landscapes.” Here is the West Coast in flames, with flames so bright you can see it from space, during the day.