A devastated couple were returning home today to find their luxury country farmhouse ravaged by fire.

Elena Schalburg and her partner Keith Joyce were on holiday in Tenerife as flames tore through their £750,000 property near Heathfield.

Flames leapt 20ft into the sky as the fire spread rapidly through the roof.

The blaze caused tens of thousands of pounds' damage to the house at Woodmans Farm, in Perrymans Lane, Burwash.

Dense columns of black smoke wafted over the village as up to 50 firefighters spent more than four hours tackling the flames.

A couple, understood to be friends of the owners, were house-sitting when the fire broke out just before midnight on Thursday.

Fire alarms alerted them to the danger and they managed to get outside and dial 999 before the blaze could take hold.

But within minutes, flames had swept through the roof and fire crews had to use an aerial platform ladder to fight the flames from above.

Firefighters also used thermal imaging equipment to scour the building to ensure nobody had been trapped inside.

Crews were still at the scene damping down yesterday morning as daylight revealed the full extent of the damage.

The roof had been destroyed and smoke and fire damaged other parts of the large dream property.

Ms Schalburg and Mr Joyce were last night cutting short their holiday and were due to catch a 3am flight home today.

The cause of the fire was under investigation last night but it is thought to have started accidentally in a first-floor bathroom.

Ms Schalburg was featured in The Argus last year because her German shepherd dog, Hamlet, enjoys riding pillion on Mr Joyce's Harley Davidson motorbike.

It was unclear last night whether the dog was inside the property when the fire took hold.

The house is set amid acres of picturesque East Sussex countryside.

It is near the 17th-Century Jacobean home of Rudyard Kipling, Bateman's, which is now run by the National Trust.

The couple are not the first to suffer such a nightmare. The Argus reported in April 2003 how a couple returned from a holiday in Australia to find their dream home in Kingsway, Hove, destroyed by fire. They had spent six months renovating the seafront home only to find all their hard work had gone up in smoke.

The loft conversion was destroyed and the lower floors had been damaged by smoke and water.