A major fire is currently being fought by Essex firefighters at Tilbury Power Station. It started at around 8a, after some wooden pellets caught fire. The fire has spread to a neighbouring dockside.
It is thought that the main catalyst for the current fire is a store of wooden pellets consisting of around 2,100 tonnes of wood. The fire originated in the fuel storage area at 7.45am according to RWE nPower, the site owners.
The fire is being fought by almost the whole of the Essex firebrigade with 100 Essex firefighters on site. Reinforcements are arriving from London and other counties too, possibly with Kent firefighters arriving too.
There are no recorded casualties and all staff have been accounted for.
For more on this fire see Twitter, tweets are coming in as the fire / firefighting progresses.
Some key Tweets:
- @cameramanjimITV – “At Tilbury power station fire. Fire chief just told me it’s a very tricky one. Hard to get his men in close.“
- @itn –
- Rob Greenwich.co.uk
@greenwichcouk – Photos from TilburyPowerStation fire flickr.com/photos/uretopia/sets/72157629100785862/ - EnvAgencyAnglian
@EnvAgencyAnglia – “We’re on our way to the fire at Tilbury Power Station to help with the investigation…will post further updates later“
Coverage from Sky News
Sky News have a helicopter at the scene and are showing live images – http://news.sky.com/home/liveplus
Here is a shot from their helicopter cam: