Firefighters were called to a kitchen fire last night after food was left cooking while no-one was home.

Crews were called to a property in Caister Drive, Basildon at 10:16pm, when a neighbour heard a fire alarm in a property across the road.

On arrival, firefighters confirmed that a second floor flat was completely smoke logged after food had been left in the oven.

Firefighters cleared the smoke by 10:43pm.

More than half of accidental fires at home are started by cooking - follow our cooking safety advice to stay safe in your kitchen.

On-call firefighters from Witham worked with the electricity board to help restore power to houses in Witham after a tree fell onto a power line last night.

Two crews from Witham were called to Powers Hall End at 9:17pm after a tree had fallen across the road and onto a power line.

Firefighter Nicola Roe from Witham Fire Station said: “Our first priority was to isolate the power as the tree had fallen onto the power line and was leaning against a house.

Following a Met Office amber weather warning, our teams dealt with over 100 weather related incidents last night and into the early hours of this morning.

Many of the calls have required our attendance to lead passengers to safety after their vehicles became stuck in deep water. We also attended several incidents of internal flooding, particularly in homes in the south of the county. Our control team have worked hard to provide advice to many members of the public who called to report flooding outside of their homes.

Firefighters freed a woman from the scene of a road traffic collision in South Woodham last night.

Crews were called to a road traffic collision which happened on Inchbonnie Road at around 10:33pm.

On arrival, firefighters reported that two cars had been involved in a collision and a woman was trapped.

Crews used cutting equipment to release the woman by 10:51pm.

Fortunately, nobody was harmed.

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Update 26 October, 2pm:

Essex Police has confirmed that a woman sadly died at the scene. The statement reads:

We were called by colleagues in the fire service to a fire in a property off Radwinter Road, in Saffron Walden, shortly after 10.10am this morning, Friday 22 October. 

We attended to support fire service colleagues in dealing with the incident. 

Sadly, a woman aged in her 60s died at the scene. 

Firefighters rescued a man following a road traffic collision in Leigh.

Crews were called by police to Mountdale Gardens today at 2.15pm after a collision involving two vehicles.

Firefighters used specialist cutting equipment to free a man in his eighties who was trapped in one of the vehicles.

The man, who was conscious and breathing, was left in the care of the Ambulance Service at 2.46pm.

Crews stopped a garage fire in South Woodham Ferrers from spreading to nearby homes.

Firefighters were called to a property in Tighfield Walk today at 12.35pm when one of the occupants discovered the fire.

Watch Manager David Taylor said: "The occupant heard popping and banging and saw the double garage was on fire. She got everyone out of the house, stayed out and called 999 - which is exactly the right thing to do.

"The garage was close to two properties and crews worked really hard to stop it spreading - they did a brilliant job."

A woman was woken up by her smoke alarms after her tumble dryer caught fire.

Firefighters were called to a semi-detached house in Manor Road, Benfleet today at 6.48am.

A tumble dryer in the kitchen had caught fire and filled the house with smoke.

Crew Manager Sam Panzetta said: "Fortunately, the property had two working smoke alarms, one on each floor, which woke up the occupant.

"After realising what was happening, she did the right thing: she got out, stayed out and called 999.

Crews extinguished a bedroom fire after a neighbour heard a smoke alarm and called 999. 

Firefighters were called to reports of a fire in a semi-detached house in Wakefield Close, Colchester yesterday (Tuesday 28 September) at 8.58pm.

Two crews from Colchester attended and extinguished a fire in a first floor bedroom by 9.25pm. They also brought a cage containing two rats to safety, but two other rats died.

Watch Manager Luke Beardmore said: "Crews did a brilliant job; they worked really quickly to put out the fire and limit the damage.

Firefighters rescued two people following a road traffic collision involving two cars in Danbury. 

Crews from Great Baddow and Chelmsford attended Riffhams Lane today at 3.36pm.

They reported that a man and a woman were trapped, one in each car, and used cutting equipment to release them by 4.24pm. 

The casualties were left in the care of the Ambulance Service.

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