An American wild western town is starting to rebuild after a blaze ripped through a third of its buildings.

Laredo Western Town in Fawkham, near Longfield was hit by a fire in November which left the re-enactment set destroyed.

Fawkham model western town prepares to rebuild after fire

But after almost five months, owner Jolene Truder has confirmed building work has finally begun.

She said: "We have been very fortunate someone set up a GoFundMe page for us which was amazing because we did not realise how much the town meant to the local community so they set up for us and we have been having wood donations as well.

"We have already started to rebuild. It will be different from how it was but it still be going for the re-enacting community that do American Western.

"We have a volunteer who is coming over from Sweden to help build a water tower so if unfortunately anything like this was to happen again, we will actually have water on site.

"One of the biggest issues is the water pressure up there. It is so bad that the fire brigade struggled.

"They did an amazing job, but they still struggled because of the water pressure and because the fire hydrants were not very well maintained in the area."

Laredo Western Town was the vision of Jolene's dad, John and his friends - a group of like-minded history enthusiasts. It was founded in 1971 after John, who was a pig farmer, bought the plot of land next to his house.

The group banded together and decided to build their own historically accurate town to represent the American Wild West from 1865 to 1889.

It had 24 buildings, including a two-storey hotel, saloon, working blacksmiths and a bank, all lit by oil lamps, and candles.

On November 18, the site was hit by a fire and seven fire engines were called before 10pm.

The blaze destroyed a third of the town, including the mining camp and livery.

Jolene said: "I think one of the biggest tragedies with the fire and I do not really like calling it a tragedy because obviously no one lost their life and no one was hurt so in the grand scheme of life it is not as bad.

"But for me and my children, it is the memories because I was brought up there, my children were brought up there so we stood in the field and watched as 50 years of memories burned in front of us. I also live there so it was the question of is that going to spread to our home.

The town has also been used as a film set to help pay for maintenance costs, featuring in Blood Moon, Finding Neverland, Red Dwarf and Gunmen of the Apocalypse.