Crews tackle 'ferocious' fire at Harlow sausage factory

Plumes of smoke are billowing across Harlow from the sausage factory fire

A large fire at a sausage factory tackled by 70 firefighters from across Essex and Hertfordshire has damaged 60% of the building.

Essex Fire and Rescue said the blaze, which broke out at Riverway Foods in River Way in Harlow at 05:20 BST on Tuesday, also caused the roof to partially collapse.

At its height, ten crews were at the scene, but the fire service said this was reduced to two overnight.

A fire investigation is under way.

Thick plumes of smoke could be seen across the town and the fire service warned people to stay indoors and keep windows shut.

At 22:15, the fire service confirmed River Way had reopened to vehicles and pedestrians and it anticipated businesses would be able to operate as usual on Wednesday.

It said that overnight crews would continue to extinguish the fire - which was contained to the one building - with relief crews taking over at four-hour intervals.

Thick plumes of smoke could be seen across the town

Earlier, it said that when crews arrived the building was 95% alight and 100% smoke-logged.

Incident commander Scott Meekings said: "When we turned up we were faced with quite a ferocious fire that had smoke and flames billowing out of the building.

"Fire crews rapidly responded by increasing the resources we deployed to this incident but because of the nature of the contents within the building - a lot of cardboard, wooden pallets and plastics - the fire got hold very quickly."

Due to the nature of the fire, crews from Hertfordshire and Essex were unable to tackle the blaze from the inside of the building.

Dorottya Spányik, whose husband was working at the sausage factory at the time, said he told her everyone managed to get out of the building safely.

Scott Meekings described the fire as "ferocious", with crews working in very difficult conditions

Ten crews tackled the factory fire

She said she also worked at the factory and although she got home, her husband was still at the premises.

"Everyone is outside, everyone is fine," she said.

She described it as "a massive fire" and said she had to shut her windows because of the smoke.

"The latest is my husband told me one of the buildings is now gone," she added.

The fire service confirmed the fire damaged 60% of the building