Crews were called to a block of flats in Harlow last night after reports of a fire in a communal area. 

On arrival firefighters reported there was a large fire in a bin storage area which was directly under the block of flats. 

Incident Commander Toby Ingham said:

"The smoke from the fire had travelled upwards via the bin chutes into the landing areas of all floors. 

Update 3:20pm
 

The vehicle has now been recovered, and the last fire engine has now left the scene. The cause of the fire was recorded as accidental - caused by a fault in the vehicle's engine.

Update 3pm
 

One fire engine remains at the scene of this fire on the M25. The fire has been extinguished, and the vehicle is awaiting recovery. Firefighters will stay with the vehicle until the vehicle can be safely recovered, which is expected to happen shortly.

Update 1pm

Update 1:30pm

An investigation into the cause of the fire found it started accidentally.

Firefighters were called to a house fire in Littlebury Green, Basildon at 7:12pm last night.

On arrival, four crews reported a fire was affecting the roof spaces of three houses.

Crews wearing breathing apparatus entered the houses to tackle the fire within the roof voids while crews used an aerial ladder platform to tackle the fire from above.

During the incident, firefighters requested the help of three more crews.

Firefighters were called to a bungalow fire in Turpins Lane, Kirby Cross at 3:58pm. 

On arrival, crews reported that the roof of a bungalow was on fire. 

Firefighters worked to extinguish the fire in sections by 5:52pm.

Crews believe the fire was caused by embers from a barbecue that caught in the wind and spread to the side of the house. 

The bungalow has been left uninhabitable due to the fire and smoke damage throughout.

Firefighters are praising the quick thinking of a 9-year-old boy who raised the alarm to a flat fire in Maldon today.

Crews were called to a flat fire in Lincoln Way, Maldon at 9:09am after the boy saw smoke coming from the windows and heard smoke alarms. He rushed home and told his parents to dial 999. 

On arrival, crews reported that a ground floor flat was heavily smoke logged and the smoke alarms were going off. 

Crews wearing breathing apparatus entered the flat and found a fire in the kitchen. 

Firefighters were called to a house fire in Downey Close, Basildon at 9:34pm last night. 

On arrival, crews reported the house was heavily smoke logged with a fire on the ground floor. 

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus entered the house to extinguish a fire in a fuse board and worked to prevent it spreading to the house next door. 

Firefighters extinguished the fire by 10:38pm. 

The house was left uninhabitable due to the smoke damage. 

Firefighters rescued Malteaser, a 1-year-old dog in Clacton earlier today. 

The playful pooch had been following his nose when he strayed into bushes and brambles and couldn’t get back out. 

Firefighters cut away at the bushes to get to Malteaser and safely reunited him with his owner. 

Watch Manger Gary Clarke from Clacton Fire Station said: “Crews did an excellent job making their way through the brambles and hedges to safely rescue Malteaser. He came to no harm and we were able to reunite him with his happy owners.”

If you use candles at home, please keep them away from anything they can catch alight like curtains, blankets, bedding etc.

Earlier today, a home was left uninhabitable after the wind caused a lit candle to catch a curtain alight and the fire and smoke spread throughout the house. 

The occupants were in the room at the time and acted quickly to get out of the house, stay out and call 999. 

Firefighters were called to Dickinson Road, Colchester at 10:23am. 

Update 8pm 

Crews have just left the scene of a large fire at an industrial unit in Progress Road, Eastwood after more than 36 hours of firefighting.

Throughout yesterday from the first call at 7:15am, we had ten crews, two aerial ladder platforms, a water bowser and our drone team working to extinguish the fire.

The incident slowly scaled down from 2:30pm as crews made progress to extinguish the fire in sections. 

Firefighters were called to a house boat on fire in Colchester last night (Thursday 25 May).

Crews reported that the boat, which is believed to be unoccupied, was fully alight.

Crews extinguished the fire by 10pm.

Firefighters believe the fire was started deliberately. If you know how this fire started, you can report it to FireStopper's, 100% anonymously. FireStopper's is a completely independent charity, who are 100% anonymous, 100% of the time."