AN investigation is under way into a suspected arson attack which caused a barn and thousands of hay bales to be destroyed.

Firefighters were called to reports of a barn on fire close to Clow Beck guest house, off Jolby Lane, in Croft, shortly before 1am on Wednesday (June 19).

Eyewitnesses described the sound of the blaze as being ‘like gunfire’. Thousands of bales of hay, weighing about 30 tonnes, were being stored in the barn.

Police are investigating and a spokesman for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue said the fire is believed to have been started deliberately.

Heather Armstrong, who runs the guest house with her husband, David, praised the actions of the emergency services, who prevented the flames from spreading to the guest house.

No one was hurt and Mrs Armstrong said guests slept through the drama.

She thanked neighbours Fran and Dan Connolly, who live nearby, for alerting them to the blaze.

Mr Connolly said: “I was just about to go to bed, when I was alerted by the sound of someone running away very fast and have given a statement to police.

“I looked out of my window and heard what sounded like gunfire popping - I thought it could have been fireworks going off.

“The fire services decided, because there was a couple of thousand bales in the barn, the safest thing was to let it burn itself out and they doused some of the nearby buildings to stop it spreading.”

Mr Connolly took dramatic photographs of the blaze in progress.

Appliances from Darlington, Richmond and Northallerton attended the incident.

A North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said all units had left the scene by 7am, but crews from Richmond were to revisit on Wednesday afternoon.

He added: “Crews used a ground monitor and light portable pump, primarily to prevent the fire spreading to nearby buildings. This was fuelled from an open water supply.”

A spokeswoman for North Yorkshire Police said officers were working with the fire service to determine how the fire started and whether it had in fact been started deliberately.

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101, or Crimestoppers, on 0800-555-111, quoting reference number 0016 of June 19.