Fire crews were called to tackled a blaze at an Ocado warehouse which caught alight in Erith last night.

Four fire engines and around 25 firefighters were dispatched to deal with the fire at the distribution warehouse in Church Manorway shortly after 7pm last night.

A conveyor belt and external motor were found to be damaged by the flames.

However, one sprinkler head had activated in response to the blaze, helping to suppress the fire.

A London Fire Brigade spokesperson said: "This incident highlights the clear benefits of sprinklers to businesses and we would urge all companies and business owners to install them.

"As well as limiting fire damage and being potentially life saving devices, sprinklers and other fire suppression systems help with business continuity by minimising disruption and allowing businesses to get back to normal as soon as possible."

According to an Ocado spokesperson, some disruptions are to be expected to services due to the incident with a number of orders being cancelled.

"A small fire was reported at Ocado Group’s customer fulfilment centre (“CFC”) in Erith yesterday evening.

"The fire occurred just outside the building in a hopper containing waste packaging.

"No part of the material handling equipment (“MHE”) was involved.

"Given that the facility was evacuated, as required whenever a fire is reported, there was some disruption to picking and some customer orders have had to be cancelled.

"We sincerely apologise to those customers affected for the inconvenience this causes. All customers will be offered a re-booking for tomorrow," a spokesperson said.

Ocado have also thanked the London Fire Brigade for their hard work in putting out the fire.

Crews managed to control the blaze shortly after 10pm and fire crews from Erith, Bexley and Plumstead fire stations attended the scene.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.