AN investigation is underway into the cause of a fire in East Tilbury where firefighters acted to save the lives of cattle and horses.

They were in an agricultural building which was completely alight when they arrived on the scene around 10pm on Saturday evening.

Seven crews of firefighters attended the blaze at the building off Princess Margaret Road and they worked quickly to bring all cattle and horses out of the barn to safety and quickly set up water supplies to begin tackling the fire in difficult conditions.

Crews reported that the fire had been extinguished by 12.10am and then stayed at the scene to continuing dampening down hotspots.