Flood causes fire in commercial building

Firefighters tackled both a flood and a fire at the same building in High Road, Loughton, last night. 

Crews were already in the area after dealing with a small incident close by when a firefighter from Loughton noticed smoke coming from another building. 

On closer inspection, they realised the building was heavily smoke logged and called for another crew (Harlow) to attend. 

Watch Manager Simon Hendy, Loughton Fire Station, said:

"This was an interesting incident for us in terms of it being both a flood and a fire. 

"It had started with a water leak which had saturated the mains electric and caused some of the equipment to catch fire. 

"It was also complex in terms of access and ventilation - a single entrance and exit paired with no windows made it more difficult for us to clear the smoke. 

"Once the fire was out we then had to make sure the leak was fixed. Because it was on a high street it took some investigation to make sure we were locating the correct shut-off point for the water.

"It's thanks to the crew's hard work and professionalism that we were able to safely extinguish the fire, ventilate the building and stop any further flooding."

The building has suffered both water and smoke damage.