Fire at commercial premises

Crews have extinguished a fire affecting commercial premises in Loughton.

We were called to reports of a fire in a three-storey building in Church Hill yesterday (Saturday) at 11.32pm.

Our Control team sent crews from Loughton, Epping, Harlow, Chingford (London Fire Brigade), Woodford (London Fire Brigade) and an Aerial Ladder Platform, from Grays.

Station Manager Kev Jenner said: "Crews were faced with a well-developed fire affecting a commercial premises on the ground floor and offices in the two storeys above it.

"The adjoining flats were quickly evacuated and crews did fantastically to stop the fire from spreading to these premises.

"Firefighters went into the building to tackle the fire as well as extinguishing it from outside. I'd like to praise crews - they really did a first-class job in bringing this incident to a swift conclusion."

The fire was fully extinguished by 1.15am and residents were able to return to their properties. Crews remained at the scene to dampen down and check for hotspots.

A section of Church Hill near the incident will remain closed into this morning while we continue to deal with the incident and carry out an investigation into the cause.