Firefighters extinguished all major blazes and began mopping up tonight after a three-day inferno at a fuel depot north of London.
But even as the final flames were damped down a major row erupted over the preparedness of the local fire brigade to deal with the biggest peacetime blaze in Europe.
"All the tanks are out now and they are just tackling fires in some pools of fuel on the ground. There is no risk of any further explosions or eruptions. They are just mopping up now," a spokeswoman for Hertfordshire Fire Brigade said.
But while congratulations poured in for the fire crews from 16 different brigades who were called in to tackle the fire that began with a series of major explosions on Sunday morning, the fire brigades union (FBU) went on the offensive.
"Hertfordshire fire authority was woefully ill-prepared to deal with anything but the most minor oil fire," the union said, stating that it had no specialist foam spraying vehicles, stocks of foam or officers trained to tackle a major oil fire.
Local fire chief Roy Wilshire hit back: "I am stunned by the inaccuracy and venom of this release from the FBU. Their claims are utter nonsense."
Fire crews had worked day and night on the massive blaze at Buncefield oil depot near the town of Hemel Hempstead that sent a pall of black smoke high into the sky, casting a long shadow across a swathe of southern England.
The depot, the fifth-largest in Britain, is jointly owned by oil companies Total and Texaco.
Police say they believe the fire was caused by an accident, but a full investigation will now get under way. Officials said fears the clouds of smoke could cause major health or environmental damage had so far proved unfounded.
However, local residents were advised to stay inside with their windows shut as the remains of the plume began to settle.
Some 180 firefighters have tackled the blaze, pumping more than 15 million litres of water and a quarter of a million litres of foam concentrate onto the flames. But despite the battle there had been no major injuries among fire fighters, Wilshire said. Forty-three people were treated in hospital as a result of the blasts and the fire but only two were seriously injured.