A SPECIAL fire engine was needed to tackle a blaze on a wooden footpath.

Firefighters were called to the St Edmunds Way path in Great Dunmow at 7.50pm on Friday.

A spokesman for the Essex Fire Service said: "Access to the incident was difficult, so fire crews requested an off-road vehicle called a pinzgauer and used back-pack sprayers to use to extinguish the fire.

"The fire affected approximately 15m of the path, but crews managed to stop the fire spreading any further by using a saw to separate the rest of the path."

It took firefighters three and a half hours to put the fire out, which is thought to have been set alight deliberately.