Lawyers acting for families affected by Europe's worst peacetime fire in 2005 say the oil company has yet pay damagesFour years on from the Buncefield oil depot explosion, reckoned to be the largest peacetime fire in Europe, lawyers representing 275 locals say that only "between 15 and 20" of their claims have been fully settled by the oil company responsible.Residents near the Hertfordshire site, which went up in flames after an explosion that measured 2.4 on the Richter scale, have received compensation payouts from insurers, but are still pursuing claims against the oil company Total
UK for uninsured loss, personal injury, as well as for loss of earnings and falling house prices.No one was killed in the blaze but 43 people were injured and 2,000 forced to abandon homes. Some families claim to be still recovering from the explosion that took place at 6.01am on Sunday, 11 December 2005, and was said to have been heard more than 100 miles away.David Mitchell, a TV producer who lives with his family about 400 metres from the site , says images are "still vivid" in his memory. "The whole house was shaking and bits of ceiling were coming down. There was a huge roar that went on for ages. It was terrifying."Mitchell's first response was to check on his two
children (five and eight at the time) who were still in their beds, unharmed but "covered with rubble". He then ran outside: "It seemed like there were flames 100 metres wide and half a mile high."In March 2009 the High Court ruled that Total would have to foot a bill of possibly more than £750m in damages for claims arising from the Buncefield fire. Chevron, the US oil giant that co-owns the site, was cleared of liability. Last month, Total pleaded guilty to two
health and safety charges, as well as to polluting water.Cash first spoke to Heidi Brazier and her husband, Carl, in December 2006 on the first anniversary of the fire, when they and their seven children, were spending a second Christmas in a ...
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