Hundreds of birds and fish have died in a fire at an industrial building housing two pet shops in Nieuw-Vennep on Tuesday night.

The blaze was discovered at 11.30pm and quickly declared to be of ‘very large magnitude’, the fire service said.

The building was home to a specialised bird shop and another shop that sold pet fish. ‘It took just 20 minutes for my dream, my life’s work to vanish into a sea of flames,’ the owners of fish shop Pond and Aquarium said in a Facebook post.

It is not clear what caused the blaze or how many animals perished in it.