Firefighters are being praised after spending the night battling a fire at a farm. 

Crews were called to Hawkswood Road, Billericay, just before midnight last night (Wednesday 19 June) after the owner of the farm noticed one of his outbuildings was alight.

Two crews from Basildon, one from Billericay and one from Rayleigh rushed to the scene.

On arrival firefighters reported there was a well developed fire in a single storey building which measured around 20m x 20m. 

Watch Manager David Archer, Billericay Fire Station, said: "As we'd only received one call to alert us to the incident we hadn't anticipated how much of the building was already alight and how big the fire was. 

"As soon as we arrived and saw the incident we knew the priority was to contain the flire and stop it spreading to other buildings. 

"Firefighters worked incredibly hard to fight the fire from both internally and externally and stripped back the roof to gain access to the whole incident.

"The presence of cylinders inside the building and difficult access to water made our job more demanding but the skill and professionalism our crews showed was first class and meant the fire was contained to the single building."

At 4.25am the Incident Commander reported that the fire was extinguished.

The building has been completely destroyed.

An investigation into the cause of the fire will take place in due course.