FIREFIGHTERS were faced by a massive wall of flame rushing towards them as they fought a huge grass fire at Cuxton, near Rochester, last night.

About 30 firefighters from across North Kent were called in to tackle the blaze at Ranscombe Farm near Sundridge Hill.

Strood Fire Station sub-officer Lawrence Pater said: “We just got stuck in. We were able to bring it under control quite quickly."

The blaze, on a field of stubble and hay bales, broke out at just before 8.45pm. Crews were alerted by a motorist on the M2 dialling 999 in his mobile phone.

Mr Pater said: “When we got there, there was a 6ft high wall of flame coming towards us, being pushed forward by the wind. At first they were 300 metres away from us and by the time we stopped moving further forward they were 100 metres away. They had travelled 200 metres in four minutes."

The crews also prevented the flames reaching a crop of standing corn.

Firefighters had seen youths running from the scene into woodland. Mr Pater added: “The reckless behaviour of the people responsible from the fire amazes me. We had to use up a lot of resources when we may have been needed to save lives.’’