Massive explosion at oil refinery plant in Fife, Scotland ????????

I am in Edinburgh, Just looked out my window over the Forth river into Fife, and seen this..

not seen it before.
Usually we see a few pipes spewing out smoke..

you can see the reflection on the water..

JUST HAPPENED....

[edit on 2/12/2009 by shauny]

Nothing on the news yet....any more info?

[edit on 2-12-2009 by highlander08]

ooohhh man.... what a sinking feeling in my stomach. It think a lot of people may be hurt if that is so.

[edit on 2-12-2009 by Alethea]

Checking Sky News and BBC still nothing? To be honest it looks rather like steam than smoke. Would be pretty black if the refinery had gone up. Very cold this morning so perhaps it's just some big venting of steam trapped by a temp inversion.

Ye, you would think the smoke would be blacker.

Thing is, I have looked out of that window a MILLION times, and NEVER seen that.

just thought it was something wrong.

Will keep you updated.

S

reply to post by shauny


Look to the right of the picture, it looks like something flying away thats hot, like you see when an explosion happens?

It's to the right of the smoke, looks like it's traveled a fair distance under some force.

Just an observation.


Never mind it's wind blowing smoke from a chimney, my bad.

[edit on 2/12/2009 by azzllin]

Hi there - is that not smoke from Grangemouth? It's not unusual to see smoke and flames sometime glowing and billowing from there.

Cheers

Berth

Possibly mossmoran

en.wikipedia.org...

www.centralfifetimes.com...

Used to live outside there.

Usually, if you can see it and it isnt black, it;s just steam..

Prayers are with everyone...just in case

[edit on 2-12-2009 by chillpill]

[edit on 2-12-2009 by chillpill]

Originally posted by chillpill


Usually, if you can see it and it isnt black, it;s just steam..

I work in refineries as a chemical engineer.

If it is white, then it is steam. Nothing burns in a refinery and produces white smoke.

Black smoke is bad.

Fire may be a flare. Flares are designed to burn excess hydrocarbons within the refinery in a safe way. These excess hydrocarbons might build up within vessels or process units until the pressure exceeds design parameters before they're sent to the flare. So, you might see the flare infrequently. Usually the flare is designed for "complete combustion" so there will be little or no smoke.

Originally posted by Samsan

Originally posted by chillpill


Usually, if you can see it and it isnt black, it;s just steam..

I work in refineries as a chemical engineer.

If it is white, then it is steam. Nothing burns in a refinery and produces white smoke.

Black smoke is bad.

Fire may be a flare. Flares are designed to burn excess hydrocarbons within the refinery in a safe way. These excess hydrocarbons might build up within vessels or process units until the pressure exceeds design parameters before they're sent to the flare. So, you might see the flare infrequently. Usually the flare is designed for "complete combustion" so there will be little or no smoke.

Sorry I thought steam was "white" when viewed from a distance.

Stop being such an 'engineer'!