Fire Across Europe Symposium in British Houses of Parliament

Alec Nightingale addresses Symposium

LtoR: Jeremy Vine, Alec Nightingale, Gary Godfrey and CFO Roy Wilsher

New article about lessons learned at Buncefield

New Buncefield book features Angus foam

Angus loads up foam at Bentham factory

Fire fighters apply foam at Buncefield

Fire fighters use foam monitor at Buncefield

Angus Fire Bund Pourer at Buncefield

Angus Wins Prestigious Award for Buncefield

Angus Fire has won the prestigious "Special Achievement Award" for 2006 in recognition of outstanding support given to fire crews at Buncefield in delivering urgently needed fire fighting foam supplies. The presentation was held at the Fire Awards 2006 Gala Dinner at The International Centre, Telford, in the UK. Hosted by Jeremy Vine, the well known BBC Radio Two presenter, the awards were held alongside FIRE 2006, the world renowned fire conference and exhibition. Chief Fire Officer Roy Wilsher of Hertfordshire Fire & Rescue Service presented the award. Alec Nightingale (Managing Director), who accepted the award along with Gary Godfrey (Sales Manager), commented "This is for the guys in the foam plant, the unsung heroes who work flat out 24 hours a day during incidents like this."

One Year On - Lessons Learned

Always keen to learn from its experiences, Angus Fire has reviewed the Buncefield incident thoroughly over the past year. A new article entitled "Foam Concentrates the Mind" published in the Buncefield Supplement to Fire Times (November 2006) discusses the main lessons learned by Angus Fire. Download your copy of the article now by clicking here.

Photographic Account of Buncefield

A new book entitled "The Buncefield Explosion" features dramatic new pictures of fire fighting foam supplied by Angus Fire being used by fire crews to extinguish the blaze. The book is a photographic account of the incident that recalls the initial explosion, the column of black smoke about the site and how fire crews quickly extinguished the fires. Over 250 pictures are included in the book, many of which have never been previously published. Among them are images of the Angus Fire Emergency Service delivering urgently needed stocks of foam concentrate in bulk tankers and lorries carrying 1000-litre containers. Angus Fire Medium Expansion Foam Bund Pourers are also shown being used by fire crews to deal with the heat and flames. This fascinating book is published by Sceptre Education and is available at bookstores (ISBN 0-9552759-0-3) for £14.95 or by mail order (Tel +44 (0) 870 950 6620 / Fax +44 (0) 870 950 6621 for £14.95 plus p&p. Order Form. Every book sold contributes to the UK National Fire Service Benevolent Fund.

Speedy Response by Angus Fire

Responding quickly following a catastrophic explosion at the Buncefield oil depot in the UK, the Angus Fire Emergency Service supplied a huge quantity of foam concentrate to help fire crews extinguish fires on 20 hydrocarbon storage tanks.

Raising The Alert

The Angus Fire Emergency Service was activated immediately on receiving notification from Hertfordshire Fire & Rescue Service at 07.05 on Sunday, December 11, 2005. Within a few hours the company despatched emergency foam stocks from its facility at Bentham, North Yorkshire, by road tanker under full police escort. Over subsequent days the Angus Fire Emergency Service transported additional foam stocks to support fire fighters at the scene. All told, the company supplied more than half a million litres of foam, mostly Angus Fire FP70. Angus Fire's Martin Hough, who was on site at Buncefield, and Gary Godfrey, co-ordinated foam suppies and provided technical assistance. The company's foam scientist Maurice Birkill was also on hand to help with environmental and disposal issues. Throughout Sunday and Monday foam stocks were rushed to the scene not only by Angus Fire, but also by local authority and industrial fire services all over the country. By midnight on Sunday 250,000 litres of foam concentrate were either on site or en route to the scene. High-volume water capability and a plan for water run-off were in place early Monday morning.

Foam Attack

A major foam attack was launched on Monday morning using high-capacity foam monitors including three Angus Fire Titans. It quickly became apparent that Angus Fire FP70 foam was performing extremely well. Despite working under arduous conditions fire crews extinguished fires in ten of the twenty burning tanks by midday. Angus FP70 is a high performance foam that is specially formulated to extinguish large storage tank fires. Its fluoroprotein-based bubble structure provides exceptional resistance to heat, enabling it to pass through flames, impact on hot fuel and move over the burning liquid surfaces. Its bubble walls are tough enough to seal tightlly against the hottest tank shells, and even under a torrent of cooling water its stable foam blanket remains in tact. On Wednesday morning Hertfordshire Fire & Rescue Service announced that the last of the fires had been successfully extinguished. Fire crews went on to prevent re-ignition and burn back by covering the exposed fuel surfaces with a medium expansion foam blanket using Angus Fire Bund Pourers. Chief Fire Officer Roy Wilsher comments: "The successful and relatively early resolution of this incident was due to many factors including the support of many fire services, oil industry fire fighters and companies such as Angus Fire. The assistance given by Angus in terms of advice and bulk foam concentrate was invaluable and I am pleased to make my appreciation public". Angus Fire has also received a letter of thanks from Jim Fitzpatrick, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Track Record

This latest incident reinforces the track record which Angus Fire has established in delivering urgently needed supplies of foam and technical expertise to major incident sites worldwide. Angus Fire is part of UTC Fire & Security, a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX) business unit, which provides fire safety and security solutions to more than one million customers around the world. A dedicated emergency hotline (+44 (0) 15242 61166) provides a simple means of communication 24-7. Bulk foam stocks are held in constant readiness at foam production facilities and distiibution centres in the UK, France, Italy, USA, South Africa, Dubai, Singaore and Australia. When a call for help is received an emergency team springs into action. Depending on the scale and location of the incident, delivery by road can often be co-ordinated within an hour and by air freight within a few hours. Foam production staff at all sites are on constant standby to produce additional supplies of foam. Angus Fire has supplied emergency foam stocks to several major storage tank fire incidents, the first being at Milford Haven in the UK in 1083. More recently in 2003 the company chartered an Antonov 124, the largest heavy transport aircraft in the world, to air lift foam stocks to a multiple storage tank fire at Repsol-YPF in Spain. In the same year a Boeing 747 cargo aircraft was used to supply 100,000 litres of foam to a tank fire at Idemitsu Kosan in Japan. 

Read the Angus Fire Official Buncefield Report