HUGE plumes of black smoke covered a Southend suburb as a large fire destroyed an industrial unit over the weekend.

Residents and workers in Eastwood were urged to keep their windows and doors shut as ten fire crews surrounded a large warehouse blaze in Progress Road on Saturday.

Firefighters rushed to the inferno at 7.15am after the fire service's control room received several calls from concerned residents due to the amount of smoke billowing from the scene. 

Six crews were initially sent to the fire before they requested the assistance of a further four crews as well as two aerial ladder platforms, a water bowser and an incident command unit.

Police officers closed the road while crews dealt with the incident and urged drivers to avoid the area.

Oakwood Park and the Lidl car park were also shut while emergency services tackled the blaze.

The incident was eventually scaled down by 2.30pm and the cordon was reduced, but firefighters remained at the scene overnight to extinguish hotspots.

Two crews and an aerial ladder platform remain at the scene this morning (May 28) to extinguish remaining hotspots and the fire service expects to be at the scene throughout the morning and into the afternoon.

The blaze has left the warehouse destroyed as diggers were used to pull apart the remainder of the unit to hose down remaining hotspots.

Group manager Danny Partridge, incident commander, said yesterday afternoon: “We’d like to thank the public for their patience while we deal with this incident. We know how disruptive it is when roads close and when we ask you to keep your windows and doors closed but keeping the public safe has been our priority.

"There has been lots of smoke coming from the scene and this is slowly starting to minimise as we extinguish the fire in sections."

He continued: “Our crews worked quickly to get the fire under control and we’ve had lots of different resources here working together to help us tackle the fire from above ground and on the ground.”