“Bus storage yard” fire, Essex

[Resuwen]

36 double deckers destroyed.

Whose yard is it?

What is the provenance of the vehicles?

Chadwell St Mary fire that destroyed 36 buses thought to be arson

The blaze in Chadwell St Mary has been a "significant and challenging incident", fire service says.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[fgwrich]

36 double deckers destroyed.

Whose yard is it?

What is the provenance of the vehicles?

Chadwell St Mary fire that destroyed 36 buses thought to be arson

The blaze in Chadwell St Mary has been a "significant and challenging incident", fire service says.

www.bbc.co.uk

Given the location, i would say that this would be one of Ensigns outposts?

Looking at further photos and videos, it is largely Tridents and Enviro 400s.

'Avoid the area' warning amid huge south Essex blaze as 36 buses affected

Photos show the devastating impact of a huge blaze at a bus storage yard in Linford as a total of 36 buses are affected.

www.echo-news.co.uk

 

[gka472l]

Given the location, i would say that this would be one of Ensigns outposts?

Looking at further photos and videos, it is largely Tridents and Enviro 400s.

'Avoid the area' warning amid huge south Essex blaze as 36 buses affected

Photos show the devastating impact of a huge blaze at a bus storage yard in Linford as a total of 36 buses are affected.

www.echo-news.co.uk

The E400 in that pic, with number 305, will be former Warrington 305 (SN09CFM)

 

[cduncan]

That storage yard is Ensignbus I hear. Assuming this is where buses are stored when there's no space at Purfleet?

I do see two ex Bee Network Scanias and a Streetlite other than that its mostly E400s.

 

[jon0844]

No time to check forums or Facebook but would I be right in thinking that 95% of comments will be the assumption they were all electric...?

 

[65477]

No time to check forums or Facebook but would I be right in thinking that 95% of comments will be the assumption they were all electric...?

I can save you the time. I first saw this on a local Facebook page with one "expert" saying from the colour of the smoke these are not diesel buses and therefore are EV's. The thread then went into a series if anti EV posts.

 

[jon0844]

I can save you the time. I first saw this on a local Facebook page with one "expert" saying from the colour of the smoke these are not diesel buses and therefore are EV's. The thread then went into a series if anti EV posts.

While I am sure there are some who are just trolling at this point, my experience suggests most of the posts are deadly serious and thus provide a lot of entertainment value (while also terrifying me that these people can vote!).

 

[SSmith2009]

That storage yard is Ensignbus I hear. Assuming this is where buses are stored when there's no space at Purfleet?

I do see two ex Bee Network Scanias and a Streetlite other than that its mostly E400s.

Yes it is one of the Ensignbus overflow storage yards.

 

[gingerheid]

I can save you the time. I first saw this on a local Facebook page with one "expert" saying from the colour of the smoke these are not diesel buses and therefore are EV's. The thread then went into a series if anti EV posts.

Similarly I learned that there hasn't been a fire in a diesel car in the last 30 years, therefore even if they are diesel (which by implication was better than electric), buses are still bad for the environment.

 

[ChrisPJ]

Arson according to updated version of the above e bbc article.

 

[AWCook]

Local paper article

Massive bus blaze was started deliberately. Ensign chief thanks fire crews for efforts

'This was a significant and challenging incident involving a large number of vehicles'

thurrock.nub.news

 

[Russel]

No time to check forums or Facebook but would I be right in thinking that 95% of comments will be the assumption they were all electric...?

Was the top comment on most of the Facebook posts I've seen about it, same as every time there is some kind of vehicle fire.

Arson according to updated version of the above e bbc article.

Raises questions over the security of these out stations.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Jun 2026 ==

Given it's an Ensign yard, are these buses for local services or is it part of their dealer stock?

 

[zkyx02]

Given it's an Ensign yard, are these buses for local services or is it part of their dealer stock?

Was a mix of ex London E400s, Bee Network Scanias & a few others… seems its stock they’ve had on sale for a while.

 

[jon0844]

Was a mix of ex London E400s, Bee Network Scanias & a few others… seems its stock they’ve had on sale for a while.

Were they well insured?

 

[Russel]

Was a mix of ex London E400s, Bee Network Scanias & a few others… seems its stock they’ve had on sale for a while.

Looking at the much larger storage yard in the background, it looks like this could have been much worse.

 

[Towers]

Another sad reinforcement of the reality that you cannot leave buses sat where they are accessible to society’s lowlife, in this day & age things need to be secure. Sigh.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Jun 2026 ==

Were they well insured?

Presumably they’ll be owned by Firstgroup and therefore self insured?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Jun 2026 ==

Raises questions over the security of these out stations.

The photos in the various news articles appear to show two very open parking compounds, although perhaps the access road is gated somewhere?

 

[Russel]

The photos in the various news articles appear to show two very open parking compounds, although perhaps the access road is gated somewhere?

I don't know the area, but the photos suggest it's fairly rural, so maybe they were counting on that being enough to keep things safe?

 

[BuhSnarf]

Is this a new outstation as looking at Google Maps satellite data that says it's from this year there is no sign of this yard existing!

 

[Acathater]

Is this a new outstation as looking at Google Maps satellite data that says it's from this year there is no sign of this yard existing!

Yard? It looks like a bit of a field with recent earth berms bulldozed around it to hide the eyesore collection of dumped buses. Doesn't look like it was high on the investment list. Somewhat surprised it had planning permission

 

[zkyx02]

Yard? It looks like a bit of a field with recent earth berms bulldozed around it to hide the eyesore collection of dumped buses. Doesn't look like it was high on the investment list. Somewhat surprised it had planning permission

any farmer would happily rent land for enough of a good price, they’ve dug it out & filled it with gravel, so no planning would’ve been required.

But I wouldn’t call it an eyesore, it likely wouldn’t be visible from any roads, or even nearby fields due to the banks.

The photos in the various news articles appear to show two very open parking compounds, although perhaps the access road is gated somewhere?

all photos I saw showed a gravel track heading out of shot, so I’m assuming they’d have been a gate somewhere.


Personally, I find it very odd.. majority of the vehicles in the compound were stuff they’ve had for sale for a while & seemingly are struggling to sell. Unsure what ex London ADLs were in the yard but they’re probably the only resell able thing they’ve lost.

 

[Russel]

What is odd is how many much Stagecoach stuff in in the unaffected compound, I didn't think Stagecoach usually sold stuff on once they had done with it?

 

[BuhSnarf]

any farmer would happily rent land for enough of a good price, they’ve dug it out & filled it with gravel, so no planning would’ve been required.

But I wouldn’t call it an eyesore, it likely wouldn’t be visible from any roads, or even nearby fields due to the banks.

all photos I saw showed a gravel track heading out of shot, so I’m assuming they’d have been a gate somewhere.


Personally, I find it very odd.. majority of the vehicles in the compound were stuff they’ve had for sale for a while & seemingly are struggling to sell. Unsure what ex London ADLs were in the yard but they’re probably the only resell able thing they’ve lost.

Yes, looking at where it is on Google Street view you'd be hard pushed to see it from any residential area. As for fences - the two entrances have gates, but very easy to walk around:

and

Both images show a very small gate.

 

[zkyx02]

What is odd is how many much Stagecoach stuff in in the unaffected compound, I didn't think Stagecoach usually sold stuff on once they had done with it?

quite a lot of ex stagecoach stuff passing onto smaller ops & preservation, i know of Scanias, Enviros & Darts leaving for smaller ops.

Yes, looking at where it is on Google Street view you'd be hard pushed to see it from any residential area. As for fences - the two entrances have gates, but very easy to walk around:

View attachment 205598 and View attachment 205599

Both images show a very small gate.

What was the date on them? Looks quite overgrown compared to the drone shots the other day, but the fact it’s so far out of the way does make you wonder if it was self started, or arson.

I assume it’s very unlikely that another vehicle would’ve caused it’s they’ve probably all been parked for a while.

 

[BuhSnarf]

The street view is from 2024 and 2020. The gates are where the pink blobs are in the photo below and yellow is where the buses were stored, so I think it'd be really hard for those gates to actually protect the site. Whether there was anything nearer it's hard to tell as there's no GSV imagery closer.

 

[Andyh82]

It’s not unusual in rural areas for stuff to be unsecured like this, I know this seems alien to people who live in the big cities where you’d need 10 foot fences, cctv, a guard dog and barbed wire.

First Kernow’s Bodmin outstation to name one, was down a country lane that in theory anyone could have just walked in.

 

[Silent]

No time to check forums or Facebook but would I be right in thinking that 95% of comments will be the assumption they were all electric...?

Seem so with one of the articles comments but the bus is clearly an e400 diesel in the picture

 

[Towers]

It’s not unusual in rural areas for stuff to be unsecured like this, I know this seems alien to people who live in the big cities where you’d need 10 foot fences, cctv, a guard dog and barbed wire.

First Kernow’s Bodmin outstation to name one, was down a country lane that in theory anyone could have just walked in.

Sadly, being ‘rural’ doesn’t protect a place from yobs; plenty of suspicious blazes have happened in the middle of nowhere.