FIRE crews were called to deal a blaze caused by an electricity pylon in Maldon’s Promenade Park.

Witnesses described seeing a pylon go up in flames near a kiosk in the park at about 9am last Saturday.

Firefighters were called to the scene and quickly had the fire under control.

People had gathered in the area for the weekly park run, which had to be delayed while emergency services battled the fire.

Once the fire was dealt with the event was able to take place as normal.

Witness Damien Walsh said: “It wasn’t a huge fire but it was extremely dangerous and was dealt with extremely well.

“It could have been really bad. I’m an electrician, so I found it quite concerning that no fuses had blown to cut the electrics off over the 30-plus minutes the cables were arcing for.

“Hopefully this is a little warning to give them a reason to address their electrical installation from the sub mains to the shop outlets.

“I was surprised the park run still went ahead but it just goes to show how much their Saturday morning runs means to people.

“The instructions for the park run to go ahead were from the chief fire fighter to the park run director.”

As a result of the incident, a number of other attractions in Maldon had to be shut down, including the petting zoo and the splash park.

Alec Hopkins, 74, was at the park as the electricity pole burst into flames, just metres away from Deb N Bri’s Food Kiosk.

He said: “One of the cables was alight and they kept exploding like fireworks – the flames were quite evident.

“There was thankfully no damage to the kiosk close by.

“As everything was happening, people were taking the freezers out of the kiosk and into vans to get it away.

“They were loads of trees around it. It ended up effecting the whole area – the petting zoo and splash park also had problems.”

No one was injured during the incident.