Police are investigating a fire at Park Avenue, Deal, early on Sunday May 16 when three people escaped from their homes uninjured.

The alarm was raised at 2.50am when several people dialled 999 to report that a shed in the back garden of one of the houses was on fire. The flames quickly spread to the windows of the house and the soffits of the roof. Two people in the house fled to safety.

Deal fire crews were called to the scene and fire-fighters wearing breathing apparatus rescued a young man from the house next door which was also filling with smoke.

The shed was destroyed in the blaze and damage was caused to the ground floor and upstairs window of the house.

The cause of the blaze is being treated as suspicious.