A NUMBER of fire crews worked overnight for hours tackling a large blaze at an industrial unit.
Essex County Fire and Rescue Service was called the scene of a large fire in Parkway, Harlow, at about 6.40pm on Thursday evening.
Crews from Harlow, Old Harlow, Epping, Waltham Abbey, Great Baddow, Witham and Manningtree have been in attendance.
They worked to surround the fire and prevent it spreading to neighbouring units.
Firefighters also used an aerial ladder platform to tackle the fire from above as well as a drone to monitor the scene.
Residents were told yesterday evening to avoid the area and keep windows and doors shut if they live nearby.
Group manager Marc Diggory said: “We’re making good progress to extinguish the fire but due to a high number of batteries inside the unit, the scene is producing lots of smoke.
“We expect to be here for several hours and we expect it will remain smoky throughout the night.
"We'd ask you to continue keeping windows and doors shut throughout the night.”
In a further update this morning at 6am, the fire service said the fire was out, with crews being in a position to scale the incident down throughout the night from midnight.
One crew remains on scene monitoring hotspots.
An investigation into the cause of the fire will take place later today.
Mr Diggory said: “Thank you to everyone for their patience while we have been dealing with this incident.
“We’ve had crews working throughout the night to extinguish the fire and prevent it spreading further.
"I’d like to thank our partners for their help throughout this incident, we’ve been working closely in partnership to help keep people safe.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here