Firefighters have spent the afternoon at a barn fire in Maldon today.

Six crews were called to approximately 650 tonnes of hay on fire inside a barn.

Firefighters worked together to prevent the fire spreading to nearby barns and a large stack of straw bales.

Crews worked with the farmers who used machinery to move bales from the neighbouring barn to prevent the fire from spreading to it and destroying more product.

Due to the remote area and water supply, a Water Bowser from Corringham was needed.

Crews have been dealing with a number of field fires across Essex today.

Our Control team has been busy dealing with calls and maintaining fire cover across the county as the heat wave continues. 

The biggest incident, which is ongoing, is in Rookery Road, Norton Heath, Ingatestone where a fire was affecting 60 acres of fields.

Eight crews were initially sent to the scene, today at 4.14pm, from Brentwood, Chelmsford, Epping, Harlow, Newport and Wickford. 

UPDATED 10.20PM

Crews have worked tirelessly to extinguish a fire affecting 400 acres of fields and a disused building.

A total of 15 crews, two off-road vehicles (Stansted and Chelmsford), Southend's Aerial Ladder Platform and our Urban Search and Rescue team were at the incident at its height.

The fire was extinguished by 9.30pm. However, firefighters from Thaxted and Old Harlow are still at the scene, checking the perimeter and building for hotspots. Crews will return in the morning to carry out further checks.

Update 7pm

Firefighters remain at the scene extinguishing this large fire in sections.

The incident has been scaled down to three crews who are working with Extreme Rescue to use diggers to pull some of the clothing away and dampen it down.

Station Manager Nick Singleton, Incident Commander said: “ I want to say a big thank you to the crews who attended this incident, all from on-call stations.

We were called to report of a large field fire in Roscommon way, Canvey today at 4.29pm.

Crews from Canvey, Southend (two), Chelmsford, Grays, Leigh, Rayleigh Weir and Orsett attended.

Firefighters worked hard in extremely hot conditions, using hoses and beaters, and with the assistance of two off road vehicles, to extinguish the fire by 7.21pm.

A crew from Rochford visited the scene this evening to carry out checks.

Firefighters were called to a large field fire near Abbots Road, Colchester this afternoon.

Five crews and an off-road vehicle were called to the scene and worked together to surround the fire.

As of 8pm, one crew from Weeley remains at the scene dampening down the fire and monitoring hotspots. 

Firefighters are working incredibly hard at incidents across Essex, on the hottest day recorded in the county.

Our Control teams are continuing to receive an extremely high number of calls as record-high temperatures continue.

Between 10am and midday, our Contol officers received 110 calls.

Area Manager Neil Fenwick said: "On the hottest day we've ever seen in Essex, we're seeing a large number of calls across the county.

Firefighters were called to a property in Clacton-On-Sea this morning, when a bathroom fan caught alight and spread to the roof of the house.

Crews were called to Kelsey Avenue in Clacton-On-Sea at 10:23am after beachgoers heard a smoke alarm and noticed smoke coming from a first floor window.

On arrival, firefighters confirmed a fire, which started in the bathroom on the first floor, had spread to the roof of the property. They also confirmed the house was heavily smoke-logged.

Crews worked quickly to extinguish the fire by 12:38pm, then ventilated the property.

Firefighters are advising the public not to have bonfires, campfires or disposable BBQs until we’ve seen some more rain across the county.

Crews were called to a field fire in East Tilbury Road, Linford today after a bonfire caught dry stubble alight.

Initially two crews were sent to the scene and reported that the fire was spreading quickly.

A further four crews were called to assist and crews acted quickly to surround the fire - which was affecting five acres of stubble.

Firefighters extinguished the fire by 2pm.

Crews have extinguished a fire at a restaurant in Billericay.

Firefighters were called today at 5.04pm and crews from Billericay, Orsett, Basildon and Brentwood initially attended.

Four more crews, from Great Baddow, Epping, Corringham and Basildon, in addition to two Aerial Ladder Platforms, from Southend and Grays, were tackling the fire at its height.

As of 7.30pm, the fire was extinguished and crews remained on the scene to check for hotspots.