Family made homeless and lose all in Essex caravan fire
A family of five who had been living in a large caravan in Essex have been made homeless by a fire.
All their Christmas presents were destroyed along with their belongings in the blaze at One Tree Hill in Corringham on Thursday morning.
The fire officer in charge of the incident said it was a large caravan and also a storage shed was destroyed.
"A family of five was living in the caravan and they have lost everything," station officer Geoff Wheal said.
"They had all their Christmas presents in with them and everything has burned.
"The caravan was next to a stable and crews did a good job of containing the fire and making sure it did not spread there.
"This is a terrible time of year to lose everything like this and the crew's sympathies are with the family."
The fire appears to have started accidentally with the most likely cause being an electrical fault, a fire officer said.