Royal Navy crews manning Green Goddesses in Eastbourne got their first call after 20 hours' waiting - and were then kept busy last night.

A 14-man crew spent 20 minutes tackling the blaze at 2pm in a communal bin store area backing onto a three-storey block of flats.

Flames up to 8ft high were shooting out when both Eastbourne-based Green Goddesses arrived from their Territorial Army unit in Seaside.

Hose reels were used to dampen the flames while some tiles were removed to ventilate Croxden Way, Eastbourne.

Sita employee Nick Goldsmith, 39, dialled 999 from his terraced house opposite.

He said: "The Green Goddesses took about 20 minutes to get here but it didn't take them very long to get it under control."

Later the Navy tackled a moped in flames in Dickens Way, Eastbourne.

An hour later a crew fought the biggest blaze of the night, a garden shed in Malvern Close, Eastbourne, with two motorbikes inside. An electrical fault was blamed.

Conifers were set ablaze near All Saints School, Sidley, near Bexhill, at 10.15pm and one Green Goddess crew brought the outbreak under control.

Just before 1am a chip pan caught fire in a flat above Sidley post office but the occupant put out the flames before a Green Goddess arrived.

Police dealt with a car fire in Battle Road, Hastings, at 1.11am and at 3am a Green Goddess went to a car accident on the A26 north of Ringmer. No one was hurt.

Meanwhile, bosses at haulier firm R French and Sons. off Drury Lane, Hastings, thanked the military for averting a disaster.

Navy staff contained a small rubbish fire in the company's compound on Wednesday night.

Within about eight minutes the 12-man crew travelled two miles from their TA base off Bexhill Road.

They used bolt croppers to gain entry and by the time managing director David French arrived the blaze was under control.

Mr French said: "The Navy personnel were quite simply brilliant and I'm sure saved the business from going up in flames."