Fire at feed company Dengie’s plant

Firefighters were called to a fire yesterday (14 December) at Dengie’s horse feed plant in Southminster, Essex.

Ian Hassard, managing director of Dengie Crops, told H&H that the fire began in straw chopping machinery, probably after a bearing overheated.

The factory’s night staff called the fire brigade at 4.57am.

Crews from Tillingham and Burnham wearing breathing apparatus used two hoses to put out the fire by 7am.

“It was a small fire,” said Ian Hassard. “There was no danger, nobody was injured, and production was switched to another machine, so it didn’t reduce output one iota.”

Dengie is the UK’s leading manufacturer of fibre-based horse feeds and the largest producer of alfalfa in the UK, the majority of which is used in feeds Alfa-A and Hi-Fi.

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