ORSETT Fire station, which was due to reopen in January following refurbishment after one of its appliances caught fire inside the building, will not now be back in business until early March at least.

The blaze inside the fire station building took place on Thursday, 13 July and in the aftermath - after considerable damge was caused - Essex Fore and Rescue decided to close the station and commission a refurbhment.

The blaze at the station.

Crews and appliances were moved to Grays.

It was expected that the station would reopen this month but now Thurrock Nub News has been told that will not happen until March at the earliest.

A statement from the service says: "Because we've taken the opportunity to carry out some further refurbishment work to the station to improve it, it's taken a little longer to complete, but we expect to reopen in early spring."