The huge blasts that rocked Hemel Hempstead in the early hours of Sunday 11 December, as the Buncefield Oil Depot was transformed into a blazing inferno, will live long in the memory of local residents.
Run by Total and part-owned by Texaco, the Buncefield site was Britain’s fifth largest fuel facility, harbouring 60 million gallons of diesel, gas oil, gasoline and kerosene. Now, it is a burned-out shell, the legacy of which is already looming large for businesses.
Miraculously, only 43 people in the vicinity were injured, but the damage to nearby structures in the heart of Hemel’s Industrial Estate adjacent to Maylands Avenue is far worse.
Online fashion firm As Seen On Screen (ASOS) was forced to suspend training and halt dealing in its shares due to extensive damage at its warehouse facility. Also hit was software and IT concern Northgate Information Solutions, whose offices were “seriously damaged” and back-up systems rendered inoperable. Dixons and Currys’ owner DSG International was forced to close its head office while Scottish & Newcastle – the UK’s biggest brewery – has stated that its wholesale subsidiary Waverly TBS incurred “significant asset losses”. A sad state of affairs for these and other local firms affected by an occurrence that no residents thought possible.
As Security Management Today passed for press, Junction 8 leading to the M1 was still closed, hindering commercial activities in the area still further as local roads through Leverstock Green and Bedmond remained clogged, unable to cope with the sheer volume of business and personal journeys necessarily re-routed by Hertfordshire Police.
Not every company that has been damaged will have put any contingency planning into action, simply because such a strategy was never on their radar. It wasn’t a priority for them. Some of those concerns will never recover, and may even be forced to close their doors on a permanent basis.
Undoubtedly, certain companies will have taken out denial of access cover and, possibly, business interruption policies, but relying on insurers must not be the foremost priority.
As Graeme Howe correctly states in this month’s Letters To The Editor (‘Stand up and be counted’, pp20-23), business continuity should not rest on one individual’s shoulders. It must be driven by the entire organisation, with the ultimate responsibility resting squarely with the Board of Directors.
Security managers must press this point at every turn.
Source
SMT
