Week-long recycling centre blaze out at last

Essex Fire Service initially sent 12 crews to Hovefields Avenue in Basildon

A fire at a recycling centre has finally been extinguished almost one week after it started.

Essex Fire Service sent 12 crews to Hovefields Avenue, Basildon, in the early hours of Saturday,14 September.

Area manager Craig McLellan said the "drawn out" blaze was confirmed out at about 16:30 BST on Friday.

An investigation into the cause has yet to be concluded, bur it was not thought to have been started on purpose.

Mr McLellan said: "The reason it took so long to extinguish the fire was because the warehouse had collapsed on top of about 5,000 tonnes of waste that was alight.

"We also needed to tackle the fire in a slow and steady way as not to increase the smoke levels more than necessary.

"The on-site staff have been instrumental in their commitment to working with us to help extinguish the fire and we appreciate everything they've done.

"Our thanks once again go to the local community and businesses for their patience while we tackled this fire. Now the fire is out the smoke will also disappear."

Fire crews were first called to the scene at about 01:15 BST on 14 September