FIREFIGHTERS from Burnham, Tillingham, Maldon and stations across Essex are expected to be on scene at Asheldham.

Initially, two crews from Burnham and Tillingham were called to a stack fire at a farm in the village at 2.30am and requested further crews on arrival.

Approximately 600 tonnes of animal feed is alight inside an agricultural building.

A spokesperson for the fire service has explained that fires of this type can potentially burn for days and that crews are being relieved every few hours. Firefighters - around 90 per cent of them on-call firefighters - from Maldon, Burnham, Tillingham and South Woodham Ferrers remained at the scene until 10am so that four relief crews could take over the firefighting.

At 10am, the incident commander requested two more fire engines as part of the relief crews and six crews from Burnham, Basildon, Harlow, Leigh, Rochford and Southend, as well as the Aerial Ladder Platform from Chelmsford have been at the scene since then.

Crews are tackling the fire in sections and steady progress is being made to extinguish the fire while preventing the fire from spreading to other agricultural buildings.

The spokesperson confirmed: "We do expect crews to be there for a long time yet as the fire is in a covered area."

Essex Fire and Rescue Service is currently seeking on-call firefighters in Burnham-on-Crouch and the Dengie Peninsula area - for more information visit the website using the link here.

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