FIRE-RAVAGED Tilbury Power Station will be out of action until April and won’t be back to full capacity until the end of July.

Chiefs from the RWE Npower plant confirmed yesterday the earliest they can expect to start pumping energy back into the National Grid will be next month.

Parts of the station – the biggest and most environmentally-friendly power site of its kind in the world – were reduced to a burning wreck on Monday morning after a blaze broke out in two woodchip fuel storage sheds known as “hoppers”.

Three crews from Essex County Fire and Rescue were at the power station off Ford Road yesterday clearing up damage and saturating the fuel storage sheds with special expansion foam to ensure the fire would not re-ignite.

Crews are expected to remain on site for another three days at least.

Despite the power station grinding to a halt, bosses say there will be no power disruption to local businesses or householders as the National Grind has surplus stock to deal with such an emergency.

The site has three units which produce power, all of which are down at the moment.

A spokesman for the power station said: “The past couple of days have been very difficult for the power station team and we would like to take this opportunity to pass on our thanks for the support we have received from the local community. Looking forward, we anticipate the earliest expected return date for unit 8 is April 2 and for units 9 and 10, the end of July, although these dates are subject to ongoing investigations.

“A full internal investigation is now under way to determine the cause of the fire and we will continue to review the extent of the damage to the station over the coming days. “ It also emerged yesterday the operation had been classed as an “asbestos incident”.

An Essex Fire Service spokesman stressed firefighters were properly protected from the affects of asbestos.

A spokesman said: “It is an old building, so asbestos would have been used as part of the building materials.

“Fire crews wear special protective masks whenever they have to work in situations where asbestos is involved.”

The jobs of all 230 power station workers are not thought to be affected.