Thirty people who escaped a burning block of flats in Essex have been left homeless by the damaged caused.

Firefighters will called to the fire in Harberd Tye, Chelmsford, shortly before 2am this morning, and discovered a fire in the roof and top floor of a three storey building was “well developed”.

Three crews from Chelmsford and one from Great Baddow battled for nearly three hours to control the fire, using an aerial ladder platform to dampen down the hotspots.

The Red Cross was called to help people left homeless as a result of the blaze.

Sub officer Syd Barrett, from Chelmsford Fire Station, said: “When crews arrived, there was a well developed fire in the roof void of the block which had broken through the roof of the building. The fire did not spread to an adjacent block.

“We made sure the entire building had been evacuated. In all, around 30 people escaped safely from the building but none of them will be able to return because of the damage caused.

“Crews were hampered by a poor water supply but were able to use the aerial ladder platform to good effect to douse the fire from above. We had the incident under control by around 3.30am and continued using the ALP to damp it down and extinguish the fire for around another hour-and-a-half.”

The fire was out shortly before 5am.

The block is a housing association building and the housing association has been informed.

An investigation will take place into the cause of the fire.