Firefighters have visited a high-rise block of flats in Northfleet, Gravesend, to reassure residents they are safe in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Crews and councillors went along to Carl Ekman House in Tooley Street yesterday afternoon where they gave out safety advice as well as being on hand to answer questions from members of the public.

Gravesham council has stressed none of its buildings feature the same type of cladding as the 24-storey tower block in the capital but wanted to reassure any concerned residents so they joined crews from Thameside fire station.

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Ian Thomson, assistant director for community safety at Kent Fire and Rescue Service, was one of those who went along.

VIDEO: Firefighters and councillors visited high-rise Carl Ekman House in Gravesend. Video by Harry Peet

The fire chief said he and colleagues have been visiting high-rise blocks across the county over the past couple of weeks to offer reassurance as well as “refreshing” their operational plans in case they need to tackle a blaze in that kind of accommodation.

He said: “We do a lot of these visits routinely anyway but we brought these forward in response to the incident.

"A lot of the conversations we’ll be having with residents are about how to keep safe within their own property, so that is about making sure they’ve got ‘fire safe’ routines, that they unplug unnecessary electrical items and make sure they’ve got working smoke alarms in their property.”

Mr Thomson said yesterday’s event was the 25th visit to a high-rise building in Kent since the Grenfell fire and they had found “nothing of major concern”.

Carl Ekman House is one of only five council-owned high-rise flats in the Gravesham borough.

The 14-storey building contains 52 flats and has one staircase.

Cllr Anthony Pritchard, Gravesham council’s cabinet member for housing, described the scenes as the fire gripped Grenfell Tower as “almost unreal”.

He said: “We instantly needed to find out whether we had any buildings within Gravesham borough that had such cladding on them and the officers very quickly came back and assured me that we hadn’t.”

Cllr Pritchard said the council is continuing with its scheme, which was in place before the London tragedy, of visiting residents to discuss the fire safety measures in place in their buildings.

In addition, he said, a letter went out to all council tenants within 48 hours of the tragic fire in North Kensington, which killed at least 80 people, offering further reassurance.

Cllr Pritchard praised the “overwhelming majority” of the council’s tenants who work with staff to keep their homes safe, for example by keeping fire escapes free from obstructions.

For home safety advice from Kent Fire and Rescue Service click here or call 0800 923 7000.