Two acres of woodland and undergrowth in Heybridge have been damaged following a fire this afternoon.

On-call firefighters from Maldon, Tiptree and Witham were called at 4.45pm and used hose reel jets and beaters to put the fire out. It was extinguished by 6.05pm with crews remaining at the scene to make sure it didn’t reignite.

Station Manager Nick Singleton said: “The crews did a really good job to stop this fire from spreading further.”

The cause of the fire has been recorded as deliberate.

Crews were called to a field fire in Romford Road, Stanford Rivers, Ongar at 8.06pm last night (Thursday).

20 metres by 20 metres of cut hay were alight. Firefighters extinguished the blaze using hose reel jets by 10.17pm.

It was attended by crews from Loughton, Epping and Harlow. The cause of the fire was accidental.

On-call firefighters from Braintree and Halstead quickly stopped a field fire in Convent Lane, Braintree, this afternoon.

Firefighters have been praised for their professionalism after tackling a fire in a scrapyard in High Ongar this evening.

Crews were called to the premises in Woolmongers Lane at 7.53pm and found two scenes of fire. 

Firefighters worked quickly to get a lot of water onto the fires to stop them from spreading. Two heavy goods vehicles, a car, a skip lorry and five tonnes of refuse were destroyed.

The fires were extinguished by 9.16pm. The cause is undetermined, either accidental or deliberate.

Firefighters have spent the afternoon at a barn fire in Maldon today.

Six crews were called to approximately 650 tonnes of hay on fire inside a barn.

Firefighters worked together to prevent the fire spreading to nearby barns and a large stack of straw bales.

Crews worked with the farmers who used machinery to move bales from the neighbouring barn to prevent the fire from spreading to it and destroying more product.

Due to the remote area and water supply, a Water Bowser from Corringham was needed.

Crews have been dealing with a number of field fires across Essex today.

Our Control team has been busy dealing with calls and maintaining fire cover across the county as the heat wave continues. 

The biggest incident, which is ongoing, is in Rookery Road, Norton Heath, Ingatestone where a fire was affecting 60 acres of fields.

Eight crews were initially sent to the scene, today at 4.14pm, from Brentwood, Chelmsford, Epping, Harlow, Newport and Wickford. 

UPDATED 10.20PM

Crews have worked tirelessly to extinguish a fire affecting 400 acres of fields and a disused building.

A total of 15 crews, two off-road vehicles (Stansted and Chelmsford), Southend's Aerial Ladder Platform and our Urban Search and Rescue team were at the incident at its height.

The fire was extinguished by 9.30pm. However, firefighters from Thaxted and Old Harlow are still at the scene, checking the perimeter and building for hotspots. Crews will return in the morning to carry out further checks.

Update 7pm

Firefighters remain at the scene extinguishing this large fire in sections.

The incident has been scaled down to three crews who are working with Extreme Rescue to use diggers to pull some of the clothing away and dampen it down.

Station Manager Nick Singleton, Incident Commander said: “ I want to say a big thank you to the crews who attended this incident, all from on-call stations.

We were called to report of a large field fire in Roscommon way, Canvey today at 4.29pm.

Crews from Canvey, Southend (two), Chelmsford, Grays, Leigh, Rayleigh Weir and Orsett attended.

Firefighters worked hard in extremely hot conditions, using hoses and beaters, and with the assistance of two off road vehicles, to extinguish the fire by 7.21pm.

A crew from Rochford visited the scene this evening to carry out checks.

Firefighters were called to a large field fire near Abbots Road, Colchester this afternoon.

Five crews and an off-road vehicle were called to the scene and worked together to surround the fire.

As of 8pm, one crew from Weeley remains at the scene dampening down the fire and monitoring hotspots. 

Firefighters are working incredibly hard at incidents across Essex, on the hottest day recorded in the county.

Our Control teams are continuing to receive an extremely high number of calls as record-high temperatures continue.

Between 10am and midday, our Contol officers received 110 calls.

Area Manager Neil Fenwick said: "On the hottest day we've ever seen in Essex, we're seeing a large number of calls across the county.