Oxfordshire explosion: Fire under control after lightning causes gas blast

A fire at a food waste recycling plant that started after lightning sparked a gas explosion has been brought under control.

A tank at the Severn Trent Green Power site in Cassington, Oxfordshire, was hit on Monday at 19:20 BST, causing the gases within it to ignite and explode.

Witnesses reported seeing a huge fireball light up the night sky.

The blaze was contained without any injuries and some crews have been seen leaving the site after almost 24 hours.

Earlier, the fire service confirmed some crews would remain at the scene while the plant, which was severely damaged, was made safe.

Daylight revealed the damage caused to the three units at the recycling plant

Operator Severn Trent Green Power Limited praised emergency services and said it was "relieved that no-one has been hurt".

The waste firm said it was working to assess the damage and urged people not to come to the site.

A spokesperson said: "Following the lightning strike at our plant in Cassington last night, the site has been fully contained and made safe.

"We'd like to thank the emergency services for their support and will continue to work with them throughout the day."

Three of the five tanks at the plant were damaged.

Firefighters have been there all night and helped ensure the blaze did not spread, Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said.

Chief Fire Officer Rob MacDougall told BBC Radio Oxford: "They are a concrete cylinder and they have a plastic top to them.

"Those three plastic tops have been completely destroyed by the fire hence the gas came out and so we were dealing with a fire inside those three cylinders.

"A fire investigation and monitoring will continue for the next few days. We're scaled right back now, we only have one fire engine down there.

"It's quite a rare occurrence but it's not the first time we've had a situation of this type so we will make sure we look into it and understand these two very freak occurrences to make sure this doesn't happen again."

In 2016, a lightning strike ignited methane stored in a waste digester, operated by company Agrivert, at Benson, near Wallingford, Oxfordshire, causing a fire which burned for 20 minutes and destroyed the roof.

BBC correspondent Sean Coughlan said firefighters were monitoring the site from above in a cherry picker.

He said: "As well as the unit in the biogas plant hit by lightning, it's understood that other adjacent units were also damaged by the explosion.

"But it's calm here now, with lorries rolling in and out of the waste recycling plant, on an industrial site outside Oxford.

"The next question is likely to be a safety investigation to understand more about last night's spectacular explosion."

A Health and Safety Executive spokesperson said it was aware of Monday's incident and was making inquiries.

A fireball lit up the night sky after the explosion

Stewart Reid and his wife saw the explosion as they were travelling on the A34 near Oxford.

He said: "There was lighting and thunder, [it] kept lighting up the sky the whole time we were driving. Then there was a bright orange light and we could see something had burst into flames.

"You could tell it was an explosion - flames were going up at such a velocity, you could tell it was gas. It was a bit crazy."

At its height, 40 firefighters in six fire engines, police and several ambulances were sent to the plant.

Thames Valley Police shut the A40 between Wolvercote and Eynsham, and urged residents to stay home and shut windows and doors overnight.

The road has since reopened and restrictions for residents lifted.

People also reported lights flickering in their homes at the time of the strike and power outages in Witney, Burford, Chipping Norton and Milton-under-Wychwood.

Severn Trent Green Power said the local power company confirmed this was due to the weather and not with its site.

Thunderstorms developed on Monday afternoon across central southern England which travelled north eastward.

BBC Weather's Simon King said: "Some of these storms tracked to the north of Oxford with frequent lightning.

"Overall there were around 1,400 lightning flashes detected across southern England before they cleared late on Monday.

"For an October day, this is quite a significant number but in comparison, on a thundery summer's day there could be as many as tens of thousands of flashes."

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