Houses and Flats Alight, High Street, Staplehurst

Matfield and Paddock Wood were called to standby at Marden fire station at around 03.30hrs this morning after Marden were called to a fire at flats on Staplehurst High Street. Initially the incident was reported as 'persons reported missing' however there turned out to be no life at risk. When the fire spread to a neighbouring terrace of houses, Matfield and Paddock Wood were called to the incident where we added to a string of BA crews which were deployed into the terrace to locate and extinguish the fire, a task made difficult due to the unusual and historic design of the building with hidden cavities. By around 0800hrs the fire had been extinguished. In terms of resources, I saw two Maidstone pumps, Marden, ourselves and Paddock Wood, Sittingbourne and Lenham, a reserve tender, a skylift to fight the fire from above, a water tender and incident support and command units. Police and paramedics were also at the scene and the High Street was completely closed.