Company directors who were forced to watch as solid oak worth £400,000 burned to cinders today vowed it would not put them out of business.

Firefighters spent more than 34 hours tackling the fire which ravaged the timber mill at The Woodland Centre, Whitesmith, Chiddingly, near Uckfield.

Investigation teams are trying to determine the cause of the huge blaze, which destroyed an industrial unit where tons of solid oak was being stored.

At its height 80 firefighters and ten fire engines pumped water onto the flames, which leapt 70 feet into the air and could be seen for miles.

An aerial ladder tackled the blaze from above.

Divisional officer Gary Pearson said: "The heat was so intense the metal roof of the unit sagged and collapsed, which made it difficult for us to reach the heart of the blaze."

Sawing machinery, offices, a show-room, computers, two lorries and fork lift trucks also went up in smoke at the EC Forest timber products warehouse.

Firefighters pumped in water from two nearby ponds. They were called just after 6am on Saturday and were only able to leave the scene at about 4.30pm yesterday.

Company directors Roger Cooper and Martin Eels watched helplessly as their valuable stock was destroyed.

Mr Cooper, whose company has been operating at the site for the last four years, said: "It is a devastating setback. We have lost a huge amount of resources, plus the building itself.

"It will have to be bulldozed but it will not ruin us.

"We would like to assure everyone that there is no question of this putting us out of business and we will be open on Monday.

"We are extremely grateful to the firefighters.

"It's too early to speculate on what might have caused this but nothing discovered so far has suggested this was started deliberately."

Divisional officer Pearson added: "The initial job when crews first arrived was to ensure the fire did not spread, so we isolated a nearby fuel supply and electricity sub station and used a new type of water and foam mix which is proving very effective.

"Fortunately there were no persons reported inside but we did not enter the building because it is structurally unsafe and there were several secondary fires burning.

"It was not worth the risk to send firefighters in."