EMERGENCY services from across north Essex worked into the night tackling a fire at a maltings factory in Mistley.
A total of seven fire engines, as well as an aerial ladder platform and urban search and rescue teams, were called to a fire in a silo at Mistley Maltings at about 6.40pm yesterday (Monday, August 24).
A silo which is a tall tower used to store grain.
Police cars and an ambulance were also at the scene, in School Lane, throughout the night.
Officers closed School Lane to members of the public and vehicles, while fire crews worked with site personnel and to bring the incident to a "safe conclusion".
Residents in the Mistley area were advised to keep their windows closed and stay indoors due to the incident.
An Essex Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: "Crews worked into the night at an incident at Mistley Maltings to safely remove product from affected silos."
They checked the temperatures inside the silos to make sure they were safe and left the scene at 2.42am.
A crew revisited the site at 8am today.
Adrian Dyter, managing director of Crisp Malt, said:“We can confirm that there was a fire in one of our malt storage bins at our Mistley Maltings in School Lane.
"Thankfully it was contained and no-one has been hurt."
He said the fire crews, from Colchester, Clacton, Dovercourt, Manningtree, Weeley, Brightlingsea and Wivenhoe got the blaze under control and staff from the factory worked with them to limit damage to equipment.
Mr Dyter added: “Our maltings have a very good health and safety record and we’ll be holding hold a full and thorough investigation to see what happened here, and establish the cause or causes of the fire."
He said the main priority last night was to support the emergency services in minimising the impact of the fire.
During the evening trains were not able to call at Mistley Railway Station due to the blaze being near to the station.
Crisp Malts are in high demand and supply brewers in 34 countries, with the largest markets being the USA and Japan.
Essex Police and the East of England Ambulance Service have been contacted for a comment on the incident.
For last night's breaking story click here.
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