A proud mum has described how her daughter raised the alarm when a huge barn fire broke out near their home.

Little Lila-Rose Eastwood woke up her mum in the early hours of this morning after spotting the flames out of her window.

The blaze engulfed a barn off Malmaynes Hall Road, St Mary Hoo, destroying 400 tonnes of baled hay.

High Halstow pupil Lila-Rose woke up just after 1.15am and went running to wake her mum Kayleigh Edgar. The barn is about 300 yards from their home.

Kayleigh said: "She was screaming 'mummy there's a big fire!' I wasn't sure what to expect when I looked out but you could seen the barn ablaze. It was billowing.

"I called 999 straight away and then we waited. After about 12 minutes I called again and they said they were close by.

"It felt like such a long time. I was panicking.

"It is not that far from the trailer where we are living at the moment and I was so scared the fire would travel to us. You could see hay bales falling."

Six fire engines and a bulk water carrier were sent to the farm on the Hoo Peninsula and firefighters worked through the night to put out the blaze.

Kent Fire and Rescue said the barn measured 80 metres by 80 metres and contained around 400 tonnes of baled hay.

It is rented by PR Dance Haulier.

Samuel Dance, from the Isle of Grain firm, said they have lost almost 900 bales of hay.

He added: "We make the straw through the summer to sell in the winter, all that hard work over the summer has gone down the drain.

"There is nothing we can do. It is just very disappointing."

Samuel and his dad Philip rent the barn from The Lettuce Co who are based in Upper Stoke and use it as one of their storage barns.

He said the firefighters cannot put the fire out any more and it will stay burning for another three or four days until the straw goes down.

He estimates there were around 840 bales of straw being stored there.

Samuel said they got a call in the middle of the night to tell them the barn was on fire.

"It was not the best phone call [to get]. We were only up here at 7o'clock taking some of the straw out of the barn.

"We did not get here until about 3 o'clock. The fire was all under way."

Kayleigh said she is proud of Lila-Rose for raising the alarm. Her son Danny was also asleep at home but partner Danny was working a night shift.

She said: "I hadn't heard anything. Lila-Rose said she woke up after having a bad dream and saw it.

"She said at first she thought it was a glowing pumpkin and then she blinked a few times and saw it was a big fire.

"She was so brave, I'm really proud of her."

The family are living in a trailer near the barn and had a lot of their possessions stored in a container after having to leave their previous home.

The container has been damaged in the blaze so the family has lost the furniture and toys stored in there.

Kayleigh said: "It is all gone. But they are just things that can be replaced, I'm just glad we are all safe."

One fire engine remained at the scene this morning holding a watching brief to monitor the fire, to make sure it doesn't reignite.

A Kent Fire and Rescue spokesman said: "The barn and its contents have been completely destroyed.

"The cause of the fire isn’t known at this stage.

"There were no reported injuries."