ABOUT five tonnes of hay bales were destroyed after a fire at an agricultural building in Boxted.

Firefighters from Colchester, Clacton, Coggeshall, Frinton and Billericay were called to the premises at 4.50pm on Saturday (February 5).

Crews found a 12 by 8 metre building on fire as well as the manure heap next door to it.

The building contained five tonnes of hay.

Two adults were treated by the ambulance service for smoke inhalation.

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Firefighters used special breathing equipment to fight the fire.

They had doused the flames by 7.30pm with three crews remaining at the scene until just after 8.30pm to dampen the area down.

Some of the crews who attended this incident are on-call firefighters.

Those who live or work within 5 minutes of an on-call fire station could be paid to protect their community as an on-call firefighter.

Find out more about the role at join.essex-fire.gov.uk/on-call.