A WORRIED resident awoke her neighbours when she spotted flames spreading along the hedges behind her house.

A crew from Frinton fire station was called to Victoria Road, Walton, at around 6am on Monday.

The resident first heard the crackling of the fire and saw the fire spreading around an electricity sub-station near Walton railway station.

She said: “I heard crackling first and then could smell burning as I was getting ready for work.

“I went round to the station car park and the shrubs and trees around the sub station were alight.

“Within a few minutes, the flames were tree height, so I woke my neighbours and damped down the fences nearby.”

She added: “The fire was burning strongly and spreading along the hedges behind properties in Church Road and the historic railway cottages.”

An Essex Fire Service spokesman said: “On arrival firefighters reported that bushes were alight and worked to extinguish the fire by 6.46am. The cause has been recorded as accidental or deliberate - both are possibilities.”