Skip fire: burning garden waste safety warning

Crews have issued safety advice after extinguishing a skip fire in Ongar.

Our Control teams were initially called to a fire in the open in Millbank Avenue yesterday (Sunday) at 9.08pm.

However, they were called again shortly afterwards to say the fire was affecting a house. 

Crew Manager Tom Side said: "The resident was doing some gardening, burning his cuttings and then emptying them into a skip.

"Unfortunately, some of the embers weren't completely extinguished when he put them into the skip and the contents caught fire.

"The skip was very close to the house and could have caused damage if the fire had got any bigger.  

"Thankfully, we were on our way back from another incident when we were alerted so we were on the scene quickly and extinguished the fire." 

The fire was fully extinguished by 9.28pm.

Crew Manager Side urged residents to follow our safety advice if they are planning to have an outdoor fire.

He said: "Make sure your fire is well away from houses, garages, sheds, fences, trees and bushes.

"Never leave it burning unattended and always make sure embers are completely extinguished before you put them into a bin or skip."

Could you be an on-call firefighter?

Billericay's firefighters are on-call; they 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