60 flee flats after night-time arson
Blaze rips through bins as resident braves thick smoke to tackle flames
Sixty people were evacuated in the middle of the night after bins at a block of flats were torched.
The blaze erupted at 3am on Tuesday in a storage area under the Kingfisher Meadow complex, off Hart Street, Maidstone.
It ripped through three wheelie bins, filling the covered car park area with thick black smoke.
Resident Andrew James was the first on the scene and tried to tackle the flames.
The 25-year-old said: “I was in bed when I heard the
Continued from page 1 alarm. We get a lot of false alarms so I didn’t think much of it at first.
“Then I smelled the burning so I rushed downstairs.
“By the time I arrived, the bin area was well alight and the car park was filled with black smoke.
“Me and a neighbour used a hose to bring the blaze under control until the fire service arrived.”
More than a dozen firefighters spent an hour at the scene. The fire caused extensive damage to the bin store and destroyed part of the car park’s lighting rig.
Freddie Carter, 19, was asleep in his flat when the alarm sounded.
He said: “The alarm was so loud I woke straight up.
“At first I didn’t think much of it, but when I went to the hall I could smell burning.
“By the time I got downstairs, the car park was filled with smoke and about 60 residents were standing out in the street.
“It was the early hours so it seems off that someone would have been in that area.
“I didn’t see anything suspicious but I hope the police can work out what happened.”
Fire officers visited flats to check for damage but were confident the building was safe.
Police were called and confirmed later that day the blaze had been started deliberately.
Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 quoting reference YY/6614/16.