FOUR fire crews struggled for six hours to extinguish a major blaze at a newly constructed incinerator plant.

Fire broke out in the plant in Lavender Road on the 20/20 Business Park at Allington at 7pm last night.

The plant, owned by Kent Environpower, is currently undergoing commissioning tests, prior to its scheduled opening in the autumn.

The fire was inside one of the plant’s huge boliers, which is 25m tall and approximately 5m by 5m at the base.

Inside were some 900 scaffolding boards which were well alight when the fire crews attending from Maidstone, Halling and Larkfield arrived.

The crews had to send for support units and fought the blaze from a water bowser, but it was not until a specialist foam unit arrived from Ashford, that they began to get on top of the flames.

A spokeswoman said: "It was a protracted job. The fire inside the boiler reached a very high temperature."

Crews eventually left at about 3am today. There were no injuries.