Ongar Fire Station has released a statement in response to the public outcry of not attending to a house fire approximately two minutes away.

A house on Turret Court, Ongar, where a family of five lived, was completely destroyed after a fire started in the kitchen on Saturday, September 14.

The fire crew based on the town’s High Street - roughly 0.4 miles from the incident - confirmed that they did not have enough on-call firefighters available that day.

Emergency services from Loughton, Harlow, Old Harlow, Brentwood and Chelmsford alternatively attended to the blaze at 7:10pm and was extinguished by 11pm.

The following statement said: “On Saturday night there was a house fire in Ongar - we’ve seen a lot of frustrated messages on social media asking why we did not attend.

“It was because we did not have enough firefighters available at the time to make up a crew. And as frustrating as you might find it, to see an incident take place in our own town and not be able to do anything about it is even more difficult for us.

“We are so proud to be your firefighters and we do everything we can to keep you safe, but right now we have vacancies, and we need your support to change this.

“To see negative news stories doesn’t help our cause. Rather than rant about this there’s something else we can all do to support our wonderful town - apply to become an on-call firefighter.

“It’s as simple as that - if we had more firefighters to crew our station we would be available to protect our community 24/7.

“So we ask you to use that passionate response and put it to good use - spread the message - anyone who lives or works within 5 minutes of our fire station can apply.

“You can do it alongside your day job or between your shifts. With your support we can recruit more people.

“For more information take a look at our website: http://join.essex-fire.gov.uk/on-call/ongar/."

Epping Forest Guardian:

Tanisan Alison Nicklin expressed her gratitude on behlaf of her sister following the house fire.

A staff member from Ongar Fire Crew confirmed on Facebook that the station has since received seven applications over the weekend and an informal chat will be held on Thursday, September 19.

As reported by Epping Forest Guardian on Tuesday, September 17, £2,470 has been donated to a GoFundMe page to aid the family following the fire.

Registered charity Epping Forest ReUse has also pledged to help the family get back on their feet by offering some of their high quality second-hand furniture.

They said: “ Due to the dreadful fire at a house in Ongar.. we here at the Re Use Centre would like to assist with furniture for the families property they will move into.. anyone that knows the family or friends of the family.. please do pass this onto them.. ask them to call 01992 578222.”

Tanisan Alison Nicklin, sister to the mother of the family who lost their home in the house fire, also expressed her gratitude to the Essex community on Facebook.

She said: “Just a quick message on behalf of my sister and brother-in-law. They are so overwhelmed by all the donations they have received.

Thank u everyone in and around Ongar and Essex area they have everything they need and we still have a few more bits to collect and have no more storage left to store the things in till they have some where too live.

Please feel free to share this post and again thank u everyone Xxxx."

If you would like to make a donation to ‘Supporting Ben and Janine’, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/fire-at-stanley-place