Crews tackle warehouse blaze in early hours

More than 30 firefighters have been sent to a warehouse that has been burning since the early hours of the morning.

Essex County Fire & Rescue Service was called to the A120/Stour Road in Harwich at about 03:36 BST with about seven crews were in attendance.

As a lot of smoke was coming from the Premier Labellers building and people living nearby were being advised to keep their windows and doors shut.

Howard Midwood, fire station manager, said: "Crews continue to work hard to extinguish the fire. There has been a complete collapse of the main structure of the building."

The warehouse is next to Bathside Bay, and smoke from the incident could be seen from Ipswich and Felixstowe [Richard Knights/BBC]

In an update at 10:30 the service said the fire was under control and it could start scaling back resources [Richard Knights/BBC]

On social media, Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service said it had also been receiving multiple calls from concerned people in the Ipswich and Felixstowe area, on the other side of the River Orwell estuary, but it reiterated the smoke was coming from Harwich.

The fire service said there has been no need to evacuate properties in Harwich as smoke was rising straight up.

The blaze is said to have been burning since 01:00 at Premier Labellers, which is a self-adhesive labelling machinery company.

It is believed the warehouse was full of cardboard boxes, forklifts and labelling machines.

The fire service said due to the smoke rising upwards there was no need to evacuate nearby residents [Georgie Collins]

In an update at 10:30, the service said the fire was under control and it would be scaling back resources at the site.

Midwood said: "We are working closely with partners and local authorities to bring the incident to a safe conclusion and reopen the road networks as quickly as we can.

"There is no fire safety risk to nearby residents, but the smoke plume will still be visible throughout the day. We'd like to thank everyone for their patience."

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