A MAJOR fire that saw two tonnes of tyres and vehicles go up in flames was started deliberately, the fire service has confirmed. 

Multiple fire crews battled the blaze at RSK Tyres, on London Road, Westcliff, in the early hours of yesterday morning. 

Firefighters were met with a huge wall of flames as they tackled the fire for roughly 90 minutes. 

Yesterday evening, the fire service confirmed that its investigation had concluded and found the fire was started deliberately. 

Nigel Folkard, Conservative councillor responsible for the Chalkwell ward, which is where the fire took place, expressed his devastation for the business.

He said: “This is very sad to hear and is very upsetting news.

“Firstly, thankfully nobody was injured.

“But it is a devastating blow at this time to lose a business through a fire like this.

“Let’s just hope there are able to get back on their feet.

“It was good that the fire service was there so quick to prevent it spreading to any other businesses or homes.

“I thank all the emergency services for doing such a fantastic job.”

At around 2:45am, it was reported that two tonnes of tyres and a number of vehicles were on fire.

David Gomez, incident commander, praised his firefighters for their quick response.

He said: “Our crews did a fantastic job of surrounding the fire and stopping it from spreading to nearby buildings. 

“It was thanks to their hard work and skill that we managed to quickly bring it under control and extinguish it within 90 minutes.”

Pictures of the scene showed three cars and one van heavily burnt out, with part of the building of the business damaged.

There was also thick, black dust across the floor and around the premise.

RSK Tyres has been contacted from comment by the Echo but are yet to respond.