'Terrible' Frinton care home fire treated as arson by police

Dozens of firefighters fought to contain the flames which ripped through a former care home in Elm Tree Avenue, Frinton, on Friday afternoon.

Crews arrived were called to the scene at around 4.48pm, with neighbours reporting people may have been inside.

Around 30 firefighters arrived but a search revealed no-one remained inside the property.

The cause of the fire has been recorded as deliberate.

Fire crews stayed on the scene for hours

'It's terrible to see'

Terry Allen, mayor of Frinton and Walton, said an issue with schoolchildren accessing the site had persisted since the home’s closure.

“It’s time the authorities got to grips with this, we as a local council do all we can do – reporting these incidents as often as we can,” he said.

“It’s up to [the owners of the site] to come down and make it more secure and it’s up to the police to investigate and keep regular checks on it. It’s also up to parents to make sure they know where their children are."

Frinton mayor Terry Allen said children had regularly accessed the disused care home (Image: Newsquest)

The mayor added: “I don’t know what they get up to in there, but this could have been so much worse than it was in human terms.

“As for the building itself, it’s terrible.

“Not only that, the flames that were coming off it – we even had smoke alarms going off in the Co-op in the Triangle [shopping centre].

“People could hardly breathe in the around around there.

“Once again we have our firefighters to thank for coming out, dealing with it and staying there to make sure it didn’t start up again.”

Crews remained on the scene into the evening, reporting around 40 per cent of the 30m by 10m building was destroyed.

READ MORE: Care home partially destroyed by fire which was 'started deliberately'

Station Manager Nick Singleton said: “Our crews did a sterling job to stop the fire from spreading to the whole building, working in arduous conditions.”

A fire service spokesman said crews typically deal with an increase in deliberate fires during the summer months.

He added: “We’re urging Essex residents to use Firestoppers to report information that could prevent a fire from occurring.

“Managed by Crimestoppers, Firestoppers is an anonymous way to report what you know about deliberate fire setting in your area.

“It’s not for reporting any blame, it’s for us to prevent the fires from happening.”

• Call Firestoppers on 0800 169 5558.

The fire is being treated as an arson attack

An Essex Police spokesman said: "Officers closed the road whilst fire services extinguished the fire.

"No-one was inside the building at the time. We are treating this as arson.

"We need anyone who saw anything or has any CCTV, dash cam, or doorbell footage to contact us."

Anyone with information can contact 101 quoting crime reference number 42/149537/22.