AN EMPTY social club in Tilbury was set alight.

Fire crews were called to Russell Road just before 2am in the early hours of Friday morning to reports of a building alight. Six crews from Orsett, Grays and Corringham attended the scene where a building which measures 750 meters squared was on fire. A resident, from Russell Road, saw the scene unfold. She said: “I got woken up by a car outside beeping its horn. I looked out the window and saw what was happening. I don’t know if the person in the car didn’t have a phone, and that was why he was beeping his horn but I quickly called the fire brigade. “They came pretty quickly. While I was watching, I saw a massive explosion and all the windows blew out. It was pretty frightening because the fire was close to our house.

“The fire service came quickly and got to work on the fire. I watched them try put the fore out for a while but they were still there in the morning when I woke up, I don’t know what time they put the fire out.

“There was another fire in the bungalow behind it recently. I think it is the same owner for the two properties so they must be pretty unhappy.”

Crews continued throughout the night to tackle the fire, with the last appliance leaving the scene just after 9am on Friday morning.

Joe Mathams, 34, from Russell was woken up by the commotion. He said: “I woke up because I heard a loud noise. When I went outside I saw the fire. The flames were so bright, it was massive.

“The whole building was alight, I couldn’t believe it. The emergency services did a great job, there were so many of them there trying to put the fire out. It’s just lucky no one got hurt.”

The building has been empty for a while, and was previously Tilbury Docks Social Club.