Drone footage shows damage sustained after explosion at recycling plant in Oxford

Drone footage captured shows the scale of damage sustained after an explosion over a recycling plant in Oxford.

It comes after a huge fire lit up the night sky in Oxfordshire, as people reported hearing an ‘explosion’ after lightning hit a food waste recycling plant.

Shocked residents shared video and images on social media showing flames from the major fire in the north west of the county on Monday night.

The fire centred on an anaerobic digestion facility, located in Yarnton near Oxford, which was struck by lightning. The hit resulted in a biogas tank exploding, plant operators Severn Trent Green Power said.

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[TheEulerID]

For all the spectacular flames in the sky, there is relatively minor damage. Try comparing this to what happened when the oil storage depot at Buncefield, near Hemel Hempstead blew up in 2005, which created a massive pall of smoke visible over much of the South East of England. That explosion (caused by incompetence, not a lightning strike) was reportedly heard 125 miles away.

[markmaw]

I work on one of these sites, we have lightning rods on each tank and earthed using grounding strips, works a treat. And btw methane is only flammable between 5-15%, the gasses in the gas bag and tanks are comprised of 70% methane, the rest is made up of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, it's also not stored under pressure which helps the explosive aspect of it.

[infidellic]

Surprised at how little damage there looks to be. Looks rather fixable in a short space of time, a bit like when the Millennium Dome ripped.

[sloughone]

A big question mark on what lighting protection was in place and if so why did it fail. Old style metal gasholders at gasworks etc did not have this problem.

[sussertheoriginal]

There wasn't any explosion. There was some rapid combustion after a lightning strike, hence no explosion damage can be seen.

[Greenpoloboy]

Fear not! Sunak will ensure that whatever the cost of repairs, all will be OK! The poor and working classes will pay for it via increased bills.

[timduck]

Perhaps they will install a lighting rod tower this time? as they should of in the first place.

[CharlesDickson-nvol]

Perhaps they should have installed proper lighting protection

[Phaaschh]

OK. Right. So what should it look like?

[tonylennon]

I thought it was "apocalyptic"?!

[James-pcku]

Damage ? .... Doesn't actually look bad at all .... Considering the amount of drama surrounding it !

[SuperGreenough]

So it's not a "Recycling plant" it's an anaerobic digestor, and it blew up because there's a load of big bags of flammable gas...

[paulhawkins]

Rule one of bio recycling. Don't light a fart

[ADHD_Assassin]

You would have thought that has them lighting poles in place to prevent this from happening

[danielschauffer]

Alright alright who tried to recycle a wind turbine blade!?

[RomLichs]

How is the damage so small? That doesn't make sense to me. Surely this is a coverup.

[GHXST-]

That's the power of lightning lol

[NeilHoward]

Was this up to the lightning protection standards BS_EN_IEC_62305 ??? Otherwise, why does this not happen every time there is a lightning storm? I think maybe some corners were cut building this Biogas storage.

[theenchiladakid]

Some plastic was melted and some gas was burnt off?

[BoJangles]

Another managerial bonus in the offing, me thinks!