‘The whole house completely shook’published at 21:19 BST
21:19 BST
Joshua Holmes-Bright
Reporting from Essex
Debbie Thaxter, 63, lives on East Hanningfield Road near the site of the incident. She said it felt like “a sonic explosion” when the fire broke out.
“The whole house completely shook, the windows I thought we were going to lose them,” she tells me.
“I ran out the house and my next door neighbour was really distressed and crying because we we just saw the flames,” she adds, describing the scene as “really, really frightening”.
“When I’ve gone upstairs all the loft hatches have sort of blown off and everything and part of the plaster’s come off the ceiling,” she says, adding that her house is currently without power.