Thick smoke billowed over Military Road on Saturday afternoon, 12 September, as a fierce flat fire triggered a major emergency in Canterbury, sending five fire engines racing to the scene.
The alarm was raised shortly after three o’clock, sparking a swift response by Kent Fire and Rescue Service to tackle the flames before they could engulf neighbouring properties.
Emergency crews arriving on Military Road at 15:25 were met with a rapidly developing blaze inside the residential property and firefighters immediately donned breathing apparatus and breached the building, deploying high-pressure hose reel jets into the smoke-choked structure to battle the flames at close quarters.
For nearly an hour, crews fought to bring the fire under control, finally declaring it extinguished shortly after 16:00 before using high-pressure positive ventilation fans to clear the dense, suffocating smoke from the flat.
Despite the dramatic nature of the afternoon emergency, officials confirmed there were no reported injuries and following a preliminary inspection of the heavily damaged flat, investigators believe the blaze began accidentally, with an electrical fault identified as the likely catalyst for the sudden fire.