OK I am going to make the assumption that there is not more to this story that would change the way it is perceived.

Assumiing this, it seems just down right silly that a company with insurance (or not) as rich as the oil companies would not do the right thing. this is not 1940. This is the information age. If you wrong someone you better believe you will be all over the press. Especially with something as bad as this appears to be.

It is such bad PR. Even if you eventually come through, you likely cannot get that blemish on your reputation removed.

@JessicaJessica: Wait, so are Northen Ireland and Ireland two separate countries also? Or is that what all the bombing's about?

I'm not from the UK but I live there... and to be honest this doesn't surprise me at all. I live a very short drive (10 minutes max) from where the explosion took place. Since I have lived here I have a new appreciation for what used to drive me crazy about the US. When it comes to social responsibility and the courts the UK is absolutely reprehensible.

IRELAND IS NOT IN GREAT BRITAIN!!!!!

Great Britain contains Scotland, England and Wales.

Ireland is it's own island, completely sepaprate from the island of Great Britain. So to say that "Great Britain is the large island containing the countries of England, Ireland, and Scotland" is impossible because you are talking about two sepaparte islands.

Nothern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, which also includes Scotland, England and Wales.

Hint to Chevron and Total: your products explode - hence explosions might happen where you store your product. Plan ahead, dummies.

Free petrol for a year.

Furthermore, how could he not have gotten a lawyer and won a case yet?

It shouldn't matter what they thought the worst case would be - the fact (as I understand it) is that as a direct result of an incident involving and caused by their facility and employees, this man lost his home and and other property.

"The accident was just too freakish so we shouldn't have to pay."

Seriously?

Disgusting.

England and Wales share a legal system. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own, independent legal systems, although their statute is largely harmonised (precident, known as "common law", is not).

There's no systematic burden on plaintiffs in any of those systems versus the US (in quite a few instances it is more difficult to prosecute a case, in many cases it is far easier), probably the biggest difference is that few if any solicitors are willing to work on a contingency basis.

Look on Google Earth to see what it was like before, and on MultiMap's aerial to see what it looks like now - it's in the north west quadrant of the junction between the A414 and the M1 to the east of Hemel Hempstead, a few miles north of London.

@Quilt: That and wtf is an oil depot? Is that a gas station? a refinery? oil holding tanks?

Storage Depot, not a refinery.

Speaking as a local it used to be all fields around there, but then they began to shrink the exclusion zone to build other things there, despite the protests from the Depot to the contrary. Apparently the HSE only expected a fire, not an explosion, but mysteriously I don't recall their investigation touching into why they allowed things to be built so close. I'm sure the fact that the local council was able to sell the land for a million pounds an acre had nothing to do with it... And yet they still try to cut back on services - so it's just as well there were no casualties.

Much the same as why Fuji were allowed to have a generator slapped next to the place.

No great shock that various nearby things suffered, an explosion in an open space is bad, in amore enclosed space is much worse.

We were lucky enough to live far enough away to only need roof work and suchlike, being just outside the evacuation zone. Which was done by our insurance company - the company they hired wasn't very good, but then a lot of extra ones had been drafted in because of the volume of places needing repairing.

It did, however allow lots of interesting studies into human nature, such as people driving for miles towards the explosion to turn up with video cameras, parents complaining about how their children didn't feel too well after playing outside in the smoke - ignoring the fact that people were told to stay indoors, and other such stories.

Anyway, ignoring all that, you'd think they'd fix it and then it's a fight between insurance companies to get their money back. Or maybe I just have an idealistic view on what the insurance company should be doing.

not that I'm trying to defend Chevron for being dicks and probably making this more difficult ... but ... rationale should still apply even if this is something related to oil.

@GeekChicCanuck:

I did read the whole article and watched the video. I did not however see the multiple links to the same story. Never noticed the Times link.

of all numbers its quite one to pick for this story.

Holy shit...I thought you were joking...but nope!

It's now named the Altair Voyager

You mean this quote in the linked Times article above:

"Earlier this year, Total admitted in preliminary hearings that the blast was the result of negligence by the supervisor on duty at the time."

Or were you looking for more "proof". *rolls eyes and wishes people would RTFA before spouting off*

They are not a litigious society, like we are here in the US. Which means that when something probably should be litigated, the weight of proof is on the plaintiff and against the actual litigation, until proven otherwise. The distance from the explosion site seems to be the catch point.

It sucks in this instance, but in many cases the tort-averse court system in the UK makes our (US) joke of a court system look like a bunch of yahoos.

Hopefully this guy gets some relief, but I can't imagine he doesn't expect this sort of interim result.

This could be a hot topic (no pun intended), but what was the reason for the explosion? Was it the oil company's fault or was there some other cause? I won't pick sides until I see all of the facts, and by his small story and video, I see no evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that it's the oil company's fault.

For all the bad things people say about the American civil trial system situations like this wouldn't happen.

Why his insurance company has not paid him or otherwise dealing with this is the 200,000 dollar question.

/Sarcasm

//Lives near a refinery, but doesn't know how far in meters or feet.

That "451 meter" liability nonsense is really amusing - will they agree that if you hold up one of their gas stations they won't prosecute if you get more than 451 meters away?

-Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

I'm sure they are "taking it seriously"

What about "chargeback?"

@Oranges w/ Cheese: That shit makes me angry.

I've decided I am only going to accept liability for the 6" beyond the end of my gun because anything farther away than that is completely unforseeable.

If he wants to move to the US, Condi Rice's house in the Washington DC area should be available soon. There used to be a Chevron tanker named after her, since she was a Chevron board member. Maybe the Foreign and Commonwealth Office could contact her for him, since I believe she works somewhere in the US government.

Claimants whose properties lay further than 451 metres from the site of the explosion will have to prove that damage to their properties was foreseeable. That includes more than 170 local residents and small businesses.

"Oh sure, it happened because our plant exploded.. but um.. we didn't THINK the shit would fly that far, so we aren't responsible!"

That house was definitely beautiful! I hope this guy makes them all bend over for this...

And in this corner, we guy who did absolutely nothing wrong and lost everything. The injustice is off the charts here, folks.

If one of us "accidentally" torched a chevron station, think we'd get away with it?

There is no disputing the house is destroyed after seeing it.

@BrianDaBrain: Free gas for a year?

...and his insurance company is saying (?)...