BRITAIN: The Fire Brigades Union has accused Hertfordshire Fire Service of being "woefully prepared" to tackle the blaze in the Buncefield oil depot and has called for a public inquiry.
The criticism was rejected by Chief Fire Officer Roy Wilsher last night as the last of the fires in the tanks on the site were extinguished. Mr Wilsher said he was "stunned by the inaccuracy and venom" of the FBU statement and accused the union of misleading the public.
Defeat for the "apocalyptic" blaze came some 60 hours after a series of explosions soon after 6am on Sunday morning triggered what experts described as the biggest incident of its kind in peacetime Europe, in which, miraculously, only two people received serious injuries.
Mr Wilsher said: "The fact that we have put out more tank fires in a shorter time than ever before in peacetime Europe speaks for itself. The work of my firefighters has been magnificent. They have worked in extreme conditions with extreme professionalism."
The FBU's intervention has added to growing pressure on the government following an earlier Conservative demand for an inquiry into the apparent absence of forward planning for such a contingency, particularly given that one of the companies using the depot had been found in breach of safety regulations four years ago.
Deputy prime minister John Prescott was also meeting Hemel Hempstead MP Mike Penning, himself a former firefighter, who has also called for an inquiry.
That meeting was scheduled after Mr Prescott convened a meeting of the cabinet's Cobra contingency committee responsible for co-ordinating the handling of major incidents.
After the meeting, fire services minister Jim Fitzpatrick told the BBC the Health and Safety Executive would begin its investigation as soon as the site was cleared.
Mr Fitzpatrick was unable to anticipate Mr Prescott's likely response to the demands for an inquiry, saying: "Once we have moved into the area of the post-mortem, then we can examine the best way forward to protect the public."
The unofficial inquiry was well under way last night as the FBU claimed Hertfordshire Fire Authority had almost no ability within the brigade to fight the Buncefield blaze with foam.
It said the Hertfordshire brigade had been criticised by the Fire Inspectorate in 1998 for a general lack of operational effectiveness, and that the Buncefield depot was not mentioned in the Hertfordshire fire safety/risk management plan.
Mr Wilsher insisted: "We have only trained on a basis of one or sometimes two oil tanks being on fire, but it is impossible to re-create every eventuality in training.
"You could talk about needing to train for any number of planes colliding, but that would not be realistic.
"The fact is we have trained to deal with a blaze at an installation which has always been high on our list of concerns and we have extinguished this blaze without anyone being hurt."
Assuming that the story in terms of injuries and fatalities would have been frighteningly different had the explosions occurred on Monday rather than Sunday morning, the FBU highlighted the fact that "it took over 24 hours after the start of the fire at Buncefield before there was enough foam for the fire to be attacked".
Labour MEP Richard Howitt also said the depot-owners had "some difficult questions to answer". Police yesterday began the controlled return of residents forced to evacuate on Sunday.
Fire crews will remain at the scene over the next few days.
Hertfordshire County Council said most schools would reopen today. Health chiefs said air-quality tests had shown a "reassuring" lack of toxic chemicals around the depot.