People evacuated from homes near blaze

Firefighters tackled a blaze at an industrial shed in Victoria Road, Mayfield.

The fire broke out in a hedge at around 2.40pm yesterday (Thursday) and quickly spread to the nearby shed, which contained several gas canisters, one of which was highly explosive.

A 200 metre exclusion zone was set up as firefighters from Mayfield, Heathfield and Uckfield tackled the blaze.

At around 7pm the operation was scaled down. Some fire crew stayed to cool down the fire and kept up the operation throughout Friday.

It is not known whether the fire was started deliberately. Fire investigators will visit the site to find out more.