Two highly destructive twenty-first century vapor cloud explosions: one in the United Kingdom and the other in Venezuela
This chapter reviews two massive and powerful unconfined vapor cloud explosions. One occurred in Buncefield, Hertfordshire near London, England and is well documented with public reports. The other incident occurred in Amuay, Venezuela. The Amuay incident has multiple reports that have some major differences in the cause but not in the consequences. Government reports say that the Amuay incident was the result of sabotage; others say it was lack of maintenance. Each incident resulted in a large blast with major damages to the nearby residential areas or adjacent commercial facilities. Each incident occurred in a tank farm area and not within a refinery process area. The British were fortunate that it occurred on a Sunday morning when few people were working in the nearby commercial buildings. In Venezuela, the blast killed an estimated 47 people and only one was a refinery worker. A number of casualties were National Guard and their family members.