FIREFIGHTERS have doused a blaze in a derelict house near the Kursaal building in Southend.

Southchurch Avenue leading to Southend seafront was earlier closed off by police as crews damp down after the drama.

Four fire crews were called to the scene to tackle the blaze in the house, which had been empty for a number of years.

They spent around two and a half hours at the scene before making the house safe and putting out all traces of it.

Kevin Hadlow, 46, from Cedar Close, Rayleigh, was driving past the house with his family before firefighters arrived, just before 6.30pm.

He said: “There were a lot of flames coming out, although not so much smoke but it was very hot. There were flames coming out the back and the top.”

Southend Fire Station officer Al Green said: "There was a row of three derelict houses with a newer occupied house which appeared to have been added to the block.

"The fire was in the derelict house at one end of the block and it was already well developed by the time crews arrived.

"Smoke traveled through the roof void filling the entire block with smoke so we evacuated the occupied house which is at the other end of the block.

"Crews did an excellent job of containing and extinguishing the fire. This could easily have spread along the entire block had it not been for crews hard work in tackling the fire and stopping it as quickly as they did."

An investigation into the cause of the blaze will take place, but crews say it is currently "believed to be suspicious".

Pick up tomorrow's Echo for more on the drama.