A fire that broke out at npower’s Tilbury biomass plant this morning is still burning but is “under control” according to Essex Fire Service. Firefighters are still battling the fire with foam and expect to do so for another three to four hours. There were up 120 firefighters at the scene earlier in the day.

Adam Eckley, Deputy Chief Fire Officer at Essex Fire Service said their tactics were having a good effect: “We are making steady progress and if that continues crews will be on top of the incident quite quickly.”

The fire service is still unsure of the cause of the fire, which broke out in a storage area containing around 4,000 tonnes of fuel. Operations were said to be challenging because of the location of the fire high up in the main structure of the building, making it difficult for fire crews to reach it.