Recently, Erik, a reader of this blog directed me to a video his firm has created that explains the role of trees leading to the Buncefield explosion.

Remember the Buncefield incident occurred in oil storage and transport depot. Thus the fuel involved was liquid hydrocarbon. The most probable outcome of a liquid hydrocarbon release is a fire…so it is conceivable that other circumstances such as amount and duration of release and the semi-confinement provided by surroundings may have lead to flame acceleration and increased explosion overpressures.

Here’s a link to the video from Gexcon.