With todays headline news just a quick I hope everyone's OK,
good luck and hope the moves to DR work well.

At the moment I know Wannadoo, DSG (Dixons)and Mestercare have
call centers there along with Dacon being just round the corner.

Looking at the damage from the news it looks like most
of you have lost your windows :-(

Again more than hoping everything goes OK tomorrow I hope
everyones's ok today :-)

DaveA

Epson also have their customer service operation there.

Dacon are very close to the site, although I understand that they're next to the southern half which wasn't affected by explosion.

That said, with the news saying that properties 3 miles away had been damaged I can't imagine what's happened to them less than half a mile away.

On a lighter note, I urge Call Centre Managers not to panic buy wallboards - I'm told that there will be no shortage of supply.

I used to work for McDonnald Douglas Information Systems now Northgate in Boudary Way just around the corner from this site

Northgate also have call centre there as well so i hope they are ok as they are probably the nearest building to the Buncefield site

I also belive Bourne Leisure i.e Butlins have a call centre over there as well

I trust you are all ok

Regards

John

Northgate are one of my suppliers. No one hurt there but their building took a beating. email and hosted servers are down but their DR plans are working smoothly and they expect normal service within the next few days.

Just to prove the value of good DR plans, I have just received this from the MD;

12th December 2005


Early on Sunday 11th December, there was a large explosion and Fire at the Buncefield fuel depot near Hemel Hempstead. As a direct result the Northgate office in Hemel Hempstead and its contents were badly damaged.

I am pleased to report that no Northgate employees were seriously injured in the incident. Of the 4 members of staff on site at the time, 3 required hospital treatment for minor injuries and have subsequently been discharged from Hospital.

This was a serious incident that has triggered a well-developed and rehearsed business continuity programme. The programme involves restoring a number of client and internal Northgate systems and relocating a number of staff to other Northgate sites or to temporary accommodation. The vast majority of Public Service clients are unaffected by this incident and we are working closely with the small number affected to restore their service. Our restoration work involves using remote data centres and other Northgate offices around the country.

We expect that business between our organisations will be unaffected by the Hemel incident and believe we have separately contacted all affected customers.

I want to assure you that all steps are being taken to ensure you do not experience any break in normal business operations. If you have any concerns, please contact your Account Manager in the first instance, or alternatively call me via Dawn Price on 01625 xxxxxx.


Yours sincerely,

It's always nice to see a BCP swinging into action, although I'd expect nothing less of a company that size.

However, I wonder how many smaller organisations close to the scene didn't have a BCP because they thought nothing would happen to them, or that they were too small to have one?

Its a shame that the council didn't have a similar plan for the residents. I live in hales park, which is approx 400 meters from the depot. I can assure that for me this brings a whole new meaning to things going bump in the night. Fortunately My family and neighbours were shaken, but not injured by the blast. but the council plan didn't make any allocation for food, this was supplied by local businesses as charity.

given that the council/government would be considered a major organisation, you would have thought they would have had a better emergency plan, Especially if you take the news which has stated that they drill for this sort of event 4-6 times a year on paper.