A FIRE which burned throughout the night reduced a barn and 60 tons of straw to ashes.

Firefighters were still at the scene of the blaze, in Little Lane, off East Street, Harrietsham, on Thursday morning after spending the night preventing it from spreading to neighbouring outbuildings.

The barn itself, and the bales of straw inside, was completely destroyed after it caught fire at about 7pm on Wednesday night.

Three fire engines and a water unit were initially called to the barn, which was well alight before the alarm was raised.

Crews from Maidstone, Ashford and Charing attended and used water jets to tackle the flames and cool surrounding buildings.

"The barn was lost," said Firefighter Richard Howe, from Maidstone’s Greeen Watch.

"It was a case of soaking the surrounding buildings to protect them, and letting the straw burn itself out."

No-one was hurt in the incident.