Crews fit smoke alarms on street after garage fire

Firefighters from Basildon and Rayleigh fitted smoke alarms for a number of properties, after a garage fire on London Road, Wickford. 

Crews were called to a garage fire at 1.58pm in Wickford today.

Watch Manager Dave Farrant said: "When the resident discovered the fire in their property, they did the right thing to get out of the house and call 999. 

"We believe the fire was caused by an electric fault which started outside of the house and spread to the garage. Crews did a great job to stop the fire from spreading into the house which means the damage is just limited to the garage.

"While we were at the incident we knocked on neighbouring properties to give out safety advice and discovered a number of homes without smoke alarms. Crews were able to fit new smoke alarms for each house. But it's such an important reminder, you must have at least one smoke alarm on every level of your home, to give you an early warning to a fire and give you and your family time to get out." 

If you or someone you know hasn't got working smoke alarms at home, we fit them for free.

Please get in touch with our home fire safety team by calling 0300 303 0088 or by visiting essex-fire.gov.uk/book