A huge fire broke out on an industrial unit after an ‘explosion’.

Ten firefighting teams from Essex, Hertfordshire, London Fire Brigade were called to Brooker Road, Waltham Abbey, at 9.54pm yesterday (Friday), battling the blaze for over eight hours.

Around 70 per cent of the 80m x 20m unit was on fire by the time emergency services arrived at the scene.

Shocking photos captured by people living nearby show bright flames and heavy smoke billowing into the sky late into the night.

Essex Fire Services confirmed the building contained several vehicles and crew removed a number of cylinders from inside the unit and made them safe by cooling them using water.

As well as fire engines, crews also requested specialist vehicles to help tackle the fire, including a water bowser and an aerial ladder platform (ALP).

Station Manager Stuart Hare said: "Firefighters worked extremely hard throughout the night to extinguish this large and challenging fire.

“The unit where the fire started was joined to a number of other units, and a number of them have been affected by the smoke from the fire.

"The unit structure quickly became unsafe due to the damage, so we have been using the aerial ladder platform (ALP) to help extinguish the fire by pouring water on it from above."

At 6am four fire engines remained at the scene dampening down hot spots.

It is currently unknown how the fire started. An investigation will be carried out to find the cause.