FIRE crews battled a blaze at a paper recycling plant in Tilbury Docks for more than ten hours.

Eleven crews were sent to the single storey Nordic Recycling plant, which contained compressed paper bales, at 3.40pm on Sunday and found it well alight, as well as being heavily smoke-logged.

Speaking at the scene as the fire raged on, incident commander Divisional Officer Jon Payne said: “The fire is deep seated within the building. Crews are using two main jets and a ground monitor to put out the fire.”

By 1.50am on Monday the fire was out, but crews remained on site until after 2.30pm that afternoon damping the building down.

Nordic Recycling is owned by Forth Ports, the company which owns the Port of Tilbury.

Nordic is one of the largest independent waste management companies in the country and its headquarters are in Rochester, Kent.

The plant was still closed as the Gazette went to press on Tuesday.

A spokesman for Forth Ports said: “No one was injured. There is no disruption to the port and all services are operating as normal. “At this stage, the full extent of the damage and the cause of the fire are unknown.”

No other buildings at the docks were affected.