Massive Fire At Charity Shop In Essex

4 March 2011, 10:43 | Updated: 9 March 2011, 17:29

An investigation's started into the cause of a fire in Billericay on Friday.

Fifty firefighters were called to the Oxfam shop on the High Street just before 5am.

Divisional Officer Bob Wahl said: "The high street in Billericay has old type buildings and these buildings often contain voids where they have been altered over the years and this can lead to unseen fire spread.

"The fire spread through a void under the building's flat roof from the Oxfam shop where it started to the adjoining shoe shop. Unfortunately the roof of the shoe shop has collapsed.

"We expect to be here for most of the day now damping down, turning over and ensuring that no hotspots remain.

"This will cause some traffic congestion but we will do our best to keep this to a minimum.

"Crews have done an excellent job at this incident, fires like this are often complicated and difficult to tackle and it is thanks to our firefighters that this fire has been contained and extinguished so quickly."