Mum and daughter rescued after car stuck in mud
Firefighters rescued a woman and her daughter after their car got trapped in mud.
On-call firefighters from Hawkwell were called to Murrels Lane, Hullbridge today (Tuesday 1 March) at 12.20pm.
A woman had driven down a narrow track and got stuck in mud which was so deep that she could not open her door.
It took crews almost 30 minutes to find her because she was not able to accurately describe her location.
Crew Manager Adam Paterson said: "When we arrived, the access was so narrow and the ground was so unstable that we weren't able to get an appliance close enough.
"As a result, our off-road vehicle attended and we were ale to dig the car out and pull it to safety."
The occupants were rescued by 1.38pm.
Crew Manager Paterson said: "The incident highlights the importance of being really aware of your surroundings when you are driving somewhere you don't know very well.
"I would recommend everyone downloads the what3words app so emergency services can find you more easily if you do get into difficulty.
"Thankfully the occupants were OK. The crew were brillliant; they worked really hard to dig the car out and gave it a quick clean so it was in a driveable condition."
what3words
what3words is a free smartphone app that can help the emergency services to find your location.
The app has broken the world into trillions of 3 metre by 3 metre squares, each with a unique three-word address. These three words can then be used to pinpoint your location more accurately.
Our Service Control teams use what3words as one of the tools to help them get our crews to your as quickly as possible.
You can download the what3words app at what3words.com.
Could you be an on-call firefighter?
Hawkwell's firefighters are on-call; they all live or work within 5 minutes of their fire station and attend incidents.
If you live or work within 5 minutes of an on-call fire station, you could be an on-call firefighter too.
Find out more about the role at essex-fire.gov.uk/on-call