Five fire engines were needed to control a blaze in the basement of a Rochester hospice.

The alarm was raised at 2.15am on Saturday at The Wisdom Hospice, St Williams Way.

A fire had broken out in a staff changing room in the basement and is thought to have been started by a faulty extractor fan which had overheated.

The fire was far enough away from patients to have no effect on them and no evacuation was needed.

A spokesman for Kent Fire and Rescue said: “The fire had spread slightly to the rest of the basement and there is a considerable amount of damage. There was some smoke damage to other parts of the building. We were on the scene for almost three hours.”

No-one was injured in the blaze and medical director Dr David Oliver said it’s lucky the fire didn’t cause more damage.

He said: “The fire alarm went off just after 2am and the staff immediately called the fire brigade who arrived very quickly.

“The area where the fire started was away from the wards and no patients had to be moved.

“The nurses were very good at keeping calm and keeping the patients calm and reassuring them.

“We will have to look at a replacement for the shower and re-decorating the area but what we do here at the hospice will not be affected.

“The fact that the fire started in the middle of the night meant that no-one was using the area where the fire started. We are very fortunate there wasn’t more damage and there were no injuries to staff or patients.

“The staff deserve praise for the way they reacted and I also want to thank the fire brigade, police and ambulance crews who all acted very efficiently.”