UK Explosion: Evening Press Briefing - Update

UK Explosion: Evening Press Briefing - Update

By Police Corporate Communication Dept

Evening Press Briefing – Chief Constable Frank Whiteley

Good evening – it’s been a long day for many people and I thank you once again for attending this final briefing of today.

Couple of emerging issues police are wanting to update you on. Firstly in relation to the site of the fire, the depot is on the Maylands Industrial estate area in Hemel Hempstead. This entire area will be closed for at least another 24 hours. Those people who work in the area are asked to make contact with their own companies and not to go anywhere near the area until advised it is safe to do so.

Also in relation to traffic matters: St Albans Road and Leverstock Green Road are now open. However roads immediately around the site remain closed to enable our response operation to continue. During the course of the afternoon several motorists have been witnessed removing cones to gain access to closed areas. In the interests of safety we are appealing for people to respect our cordons and operational boundaries.

Hemel Hempstead town centre itself

In terms of local schools: a large number of schools will be closed tomorrow across the county and people should either check www.hertsdirect.org, or www.herts.police.uk which has lists of those schools affected by these closures.

Building inspectors are now out making technical assessments about the damage and what measures are required in the return to normality.

No further casualties are being reported at this stage. Once again we would advise people in the first instance to contact NHS Direct on 0845 46 47. Equally if people feel seriously ill to make contact with out of hours GP or in extreme circumstances attend their A&E.

Once again the main message is stay in, keep windows closed and remain listening to local news programmes.

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