A quick-thinking council lorry driver stopped a fire spreading to his cab when he unloaded a burning skip full of rubbish.

The seven-and-a-half ton Castle Point Council lorry was on Kiln Road, Thundersley, when the load it was carrying caught fire.

Firefighters said the driver calmly lowered the skip off the lorry and reduced the chance of the blaze spreading to the vehicle by moving it away.

Sub-officer Alan Hockett, of Hadleigh fire station, said: "It could have caused problems if he didn't get the skip off the lorry so the driver did the sensible thing."

Eye-witness Maureen Rowley, who lives nearby, said: "The flames were quite high but once they got to work, the danger was averted very quickly."

The driver was then able to load the skip back onto his lorry before travelling with a fire crew to the rubbish tip at Two Tree Island, Leigh, where firefighters made absolutely certain there was no smouldering rubbish.

The lorry had been collecting waste paper as part of the authority's textile collections.

Skip blaze - quick thinking stopped the fire spreading to a council lorry.

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