The residents of Nazeing are up in arms after the large Woodpile in Hoe Lane burst into flame again this week - the second in five months.

Nine fire appliances, including an aerial platform and an off-road vehicle were called to the site on Saturday May 30 to reports of a fire.

At its height 35 firefighters tried to put out the 100 tonnes of woodchippings.

It is estimated that each one of these fires cost Essex County Fire and rescue over 60k to extinguish.

But the people who are really left counting the cost are the villagers who live close to the controversial site.

A Village petition is gaining momentum and already has 364 signatures calling on Epping Forest District Council to close the site.

Mrs Liz Lawrance, from Palmers Grove is a registered childminder.

She said that the blaze has forced her to keep her children indoors on the hottest day of the year.

She said: "I had a glowing report from OFSTED but its getting to the point where I have to consider if I can still care for the children here. We all know it will happen again."

She added: "Once its out everything is covered in ash, our homes, our gardens, our cars, we've been considering buying face masks just to make sure we're safe."

"I'm okay, but for the people who have asthma its terrible."

Recently the children at Nazeing School were asked to draw something that made them think of the village, and one of them said to me - we could do the big bonfire, blazing Nazeing."

"I just thought that was so sad- we live in a beautiful village and all our children could think of was this huge industrial blot on the landscape."

Alex Chan from the environment Agency said: "The site is lawful and checked by the Environment agency. We were called to the incident and I have spoken to residents about it.

"I can understand that the smoke from the site may make residents unsettled and cause a nuisance, but we are liasing with the operators Scott and Scott to ensure situations like this can be avoided in the future."

A spokesman for Essex County Fire and Rescue confirmed that the blaze was still smouldering five days on.

she said: "We are treating this as suspicious, but there is no immediate danger to residents."

She denied that the regular fires at the site were a drain in resources, saying: "All incidents could be seen as a drain on resources"

The site is owned by Scott and Scott Ltd of Broxbourne.

Mr Warren Scott said: "We understand how residents feel, we really didn't expect the fire to happen again, we don't know what happened last time and we don't know what happened this time, but it looks as if someone's got it in for us."

"We weren't the company that filled the site -we were hired to try and clear up the mess they left a year ago. When fires happen it costs us so much money, we've decided to suspend operations at the site until further security measures can be put in place.

"Nothing is going into the site as of now, but I would say to residents that we're as distraught as you that this has happened again. We don't want to be in this situation."