A FREE-RANGE egg farmer has spoken of his shock after a fire tore through a £600,000 shed, killing up to 13,000 chickens.

David Hugill, who sells his eggs at markets in Darlington, Redcar and Northallerton, said while the fire had been a blow for his business, he was relieved to have rescued the other animals on his farm, at Faceby, near Stokesley, as the blaze reduced his 90m by 20m shed to ashes in an hour.

Mr Hugill, who is also a member of Hambleton District Council and North York Moors National Park Authority, said he had been woken at 1am on Wednesday (January 28) by crashing sounds and initially thought a storm was hitting the farm.

He said: "I realised the shed was on fire when I saw a crescendo of flames.

"The fire brigade were incredible and were here within minutes and managed to stop the flames from spreading as there were strong winds.

"It went from a shed to ashes within an hour - it was unfortunate that it was at a time of day when the hens were inside."

Mr Hugill said as six teams of firefighters from Northallerton, Stokesley, Coulby Newham, Yarm and Middlesbrough tackled the blaze and set up a hydrant due to poor water supplies in the area, he rescued his four dogs and two horses from nearby outbuildings.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service has examined CCTV footage recovered from the shed in an attempt to identify the cause of the fire, which is believed to have been accidental.

Mr Hugill said in the hours after the fire the farming community had rallied around with offers of support for his family.

He said: "We are a popular business, a lot of people take an interest in these hens.

"This has come as a blow as we had just turned the corner after starting to sell directly to customers.

"We got the hens in October and they were just going into production, but we will be able to keep going with the eggs we have stored and have got another shed we can use."