Fire in Mersea leaves homeowner devastated

Firefighters took nearly two hours to put out the flames at the two-storey timber framed house on East Road, Mersea Island.

The homeowner suffered minor injuries in the blaze which started yesterday morning.

It is not yet known how it started.

The fire damaged a neighbouring property after it spread to an oil tank which then went up in flames, according to one witness.

Four fire engines arrived at the scene after emergency services received the 999 call shortly after midnight.

Two police cars were on the scene yesterday as experts began their investigation into the cause of the fire.

One neighbour said one side of his neighbour’s house was up in flames, with the heat damaging his own property.

He said: “It wasn’t until about 1.30am before any of the fire engines left and one stayed here the whole night.

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“The heat was very strong – the fascia is all warped from the heat, one of the windows is cracked and the drainpipes have melted,” he added.

“The scary bit was when the oil tank went up – it went up in a whoomph. It was so intense.”

He went to say the fire service dealt with the situation well before the fire was extinguished just before 2am.

“Once the fire service got into action, they dealt with it quickly and efficiently, and there was a police car here all night,” he said.

Another neighbour, who gave the victims of the fire a bed for the night, described the blaze as “terrifying".

She said: “It was a terrifying experience – there were shards of glass raining down and the high winds were whipping up the flames.”

The owner of the house, who was still shaken following the incident, suffered minor burns but said both he and his wife, and their dog, managed to escape.