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Fifty years of hazard research by the oil and gas industry has seen major advances in understanding the consequences of loss of containment of flammable fluids. This paper charts the progress made, lessons learnt and attempts to identify where gaps remain. The combination of research on potential jet and pool fires and vapour cloud explosions and response to major accidents has led to the development of correlations and physical models that allow engineers to identify and perform consequence analysis in an informed way. However, there is, as yet, no formal procedure to test the reliability of such models. Nevertheless, the aim of making the world a safer place remains a powerful motivation for such studies.