A business owner desperately shouted to his partner and her children to get out of their house after a huge fire took hold.

The blaze engulfed the home, office and workshop at Love Lane in Headcorn last night. It also destroyed two cars.

While firefighters couldn't stop the complex being destroyed, they battled to stop the flames spreading to neighbouring properties.

Today, Phil Tassell, 41, who runs a fencing business there, told how he had lost everything, and of the terror when he realised the fire was quickly spreading.

He said he had been doing some work on a dumper truck at his workshop, when he thinks some of the electrics shorted and set fire to a container with either fuel or oil in it, and spread to a fuel tank.

The father of three turned to try and grab a bucket of water, but realised to his horror most of the car being claimed by flames.

So he ran back to the house and screamed at his family to get out. They grabbed his partner's children, her son-in-law, plus their four dogs and two cats.

He said: "Some electrical wiring must have shorted out and caught the truck's oil cooler alight. I ran to get a bucket of water but by the time I got back the fuel tank on the truck was on fire.

"The two lads were trying to get the fire extinguishers on it but it was having no impact on the force of the fire.

"I threw the bucket of water, which is the worst thing I could have done. I shouted to the lads to get out and rang 999 as I ran round to my house.

"I kicked the front door in, I didn't even bother with the handle, and shouted 'get out, the house is on fire'.

"They thought I was on a wind up so I shouted 'look out of the window'. They ran out with no footwear on. Before they had got across the yard the whole house had gone up. The little girl was quite frightened."

Today only a shell of the buildings remain.

"The fire brigade was there in about 15 minutes but it felt like hours just watching the flames lick up the side of the house. The central heating oil tank in the house caught fire as well and that probably had about 1,500l of oil in it," Mr Tassell explained.

"It got to a point where myself and the firefighters made the decision that my house was gone and they had to concentrate on stopping the fire spreading to the main house, which they did.

"All the kids' Christmas presents are gone, the Christmas tree is gone, my computer, cheque books, credit cards, cash. My office went up so my business is gone.

"I've now got no photos of my kids as babies. There were family heirlooms in there, furniture my grandmother had made that I inherited 15 years ago when she died.

"God only knows how much money everything was worth. It was more about the personal things, you can't really quantify it.

"I've been up all night. We tried our best to go to bed but you just can't sleep.

"The firefighters let me in this morning to have a look for a couple of things but there's nothing left."

Fire crews arrived at 7.15pm and left around 4.30am. Crews returned this morning to dampen debris down.

They used compressed air foam and hose reels to tackle the blaze, and even resorted to pumping water from a nearby pond.

Fortunately no injuries were reported.

The family now has no idea where to spend Christmas.

"I don't know where we'll spend Christmas. I'm staying with my parents at the moment but I might end up in a mobile home. I need to be here to help dad look after the farm animals.

"You've got to look at the positives though. I'm just thankful no one was hurt, no lives were lost.

"I've helped other people put out fires on their farms but you never expect it to happen to you.

"The neighbours were really supportive and stayed here for a long time. They made tea and coffee for the firefighters."