From 8am on Friday, July 24 to 8am on Thursday, July 30, Essex County Fire and Rescue Service (ECFRS) received 2,029 emergency 999 calls, leading to a high volume of callouts across the county. Crews tackled serious and complex emergencies throughout Essex, often managing multiple large-scale incidents simultaneously while maintaining county-wide coverage. The week was dominated by a major industrial fire at Highlands Farm in East Hanningfield, described as the largest fire the service has tackled in decades. "On many occasions this week, we’ve had multiple large incidents ongoing simultaneously and we’ve been able to respond to every emergency call. "Summer is usually a busy period for us and our crews have been attending back-to-back incidents for several weeks now."