Hugh's kitchen nightmare: Fire at the River Cottage

A blackened stone shell is all that is left of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage cookery school after it was destroyed by a fire in the kitchen.

The TV chef's converted barn at Park Farm in Axminster, Devon, was devoured by flames of such ferocity on Tuesday night that eight fire engines and 80 firefighters attended. Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall is currently away on a long-distance filming trip and had to be told by email. The remnants of several ovens were the only objects still recognisable in the barn.

The cause is still under investigation but police said they were not treating it as suspicious.