Thick black smoke could be seen for miles across south Essex yesterday as ten fire engines were dispatched to battle a burning mound of tyres.

Fire crews from Basildon, Brentwood, Ingatestone, Corringham, Grays, Orsett, and Ongar faced dangers of explosion and electricution as they fought the fire in Dunton Road, Herongate, from 7pm.

Firefighters took three hours to douse the blaze, that broke out in a pile of abandoned tyres in a field and took hold in a 70 metre by 30 metre pile of tyres which contained gas cylinders and was directly underneath electricity cables.

Basildon station officer Tony Clark said crews ran the risk of inhaling thick black smoke, explosion from the cylinders and electrocution if the cables arked down to the flames.

Crews, who arrived around 7pm and had it under control by 10pm, prevented the blaze from spreading to neighbouring piles of tyres, but it was still alight and officers remained at the scene damping down overnight.

He said: "We had to treat it very cautiously and used unmanned ground monitor jets and foam to avoid electrocution. The tyres were about eight to ten foot deep.

Evidence of previous fires in the field means the service is treating it as suspicious.