Derelict building fire

Firefighters were called to a fire in a derelict building in Fronks Road, Dovercourt last night. 

On arrival, crews reported that a large detached building was on fire with the fire spreading rapidly throughout. 

Four crews worked throughout the night using an Aerial Ladder Platform to tackle the fire in sections.

Firefighters worked to extinguish the fire by 5:45am. 

Two crews currently remain on scene monitoring hotspots. 

Crew Manager Norman Gooch from Dovercourt Fire Station was one of the first firefighters on the scene and was the initial Incident Commander. He’s an on-call firefighter at Dovercourt Fire Station and was just settling down for the evening when he was paged about a fire near the fire station. 

Two crews from Dovercourt rushed to the scene and saw how quickly the fire was developing. They immediately requested a further two crews from Colchester and Manningtree and an Aerial Ladder Platform from Colchester to help extinguish the fire. Due to a difficult water supply, a Water Bowser from Halstead was requested to shuttle water to the scene. 

Norman said: “We turned up to a well developed fire which had likely been burning for some while. On arrival, flames were already coming out of the windows and roof on one side of the building, at this point it was going to be hard to save but crews worked extremely hard to save the rest of the building. We have been called there a number of times over the years with reports to people setting fires inside the building, it is a great shame as it is an important part of history and a local land mark.”

An investigation found the fire was started deliberately.