An underground fuel pipeline adjacent to the A38 north of Bristol was damaged by maintenance workers. The line was not under pumping pressure at the time of the incident, however, approximately 27,000 litres of aviation fuel was released due to hydrostatic head in the line. The fuel spread over an area of 40 x 20m on old depot land and onto an adjoining residential property spreading over parts of the garden lawn, a paved patio and a garage. The spill appeared to be localised and the Company responsible for the pipeline began recovery of the fuel and removal of the most heavily contaminated soil. At 20:00, the Police and Fire Brigade that attended the scene left since all surface liquids had been removed, moving the incident from potentially explosive to a physical clean-up operation.

The next day, the residents of a property 16 houses away from the spill site reported a strong smell of kerosene in their property and a ‘pool’ of fuel was found under the floorboards towards the front of the property. The occupiers were evacuated during several weeks while the company tried to secure ventilation equipment and the clean up continued using a combination of vacuum extraction and bioremediation. A health monitoring protocol extending over 2 years was carried out after the house reoccupation.