A MASSIVE fire raged through the night at a timber yard.

Clouds covered parts of the county town as the all-night blaze persisted at the timber merchants between Writtle and Roxwell, while dozens of firefighters worked to douse the flames.

The fire started at around midnight on Friday August 22 and fire crews were called to the scene, to find that around 10 per cent of the wood was well alight.

Concentrating on containing the spread of the blaze, the two fire teams that were sent to the scene requested backup from an additional crew.

By 1.12am the firefighters found water supplies were diminishing and had to request the support of the fire service's water officers.

Two more water pumps and extra manpower was need to bring the deep-seated blaze under control, while Roxwell Road was closed shortly after 7am.

Extra crews were also ordered in to relieve the men who had spent hours tacking the blaze, although efforts were hampered by a poor water supply.

For the first time ever in Essex, a special high-volume pump had to be brought to the scene from Lexden in Colchester, which pumps 7,000 litres of water a minute.

The specialist equipment has previously been used at major incidents, such as the Buncefield oil fire and the Carlisle floods.

Firefighters informed Essex Police that the cause of the blaze was suspicious.