13th September 2007 - This morning several news sources reported an over night incident at Fawley refinery. Local residents contacted the fire services after hearing the sirens and seeing what they thought were flames.

The incident was caused by flaring following an electrical fault. Hampshire Fire Service said they had not been called out as the situation was under control; no one was been hurt. News reports and pictures can be found at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/6992537.stm

An initial examination of air pollution measurements made at the New Forest District Council monitoring sites this morning found no sign of any impact on PM10, SO2 or NOX concentrations. Further details of measurements can be found at www.hantsair.org.uk.

David Green who was on duty in our operations centre said, "Following our experience of the Buncefield fire, and our subsequent work with the Health Protection Agency, we were able to quickly assess the local air pollution measurements and send our assessment to the local authority, the refinery, the Environment Agency and the HPA."

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Item date 13/09/2007