Loughton: Homes evacuated over fire in commercial building

Homes were evacuated while about 30 firefighters tackled a fire at a commercial building in Essex.

Six crews were sent to the fire in a three-storey building in Church Hill, Loughton, at about 23:30 GMT on Saturday.

Essex Fire and Rescue Service said it was faced with a "well-developed fire" affecting the ground floor premises and offices in the two storeys above it.

The blaze was extinguished by 01:15 but part of the road remains closed.

Station manager, Kev Jenner, said: "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."

Residents were able to return to their properties when the fire was out and crews remained at the scene to dampen down and check for hotspots.

A section of Church Hill will remain closed into Sunday morning while the fire service carries out an investigation into the cause.

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