A WARSHIP crew stepped in to help when fire broke out in a 2,000 ton stack of paper at Chatham Docks on Tuesday night.

Two articulated lorries and three cars were destroyed in the fire as well as hundreds of tons of scrap paper.

Firemen were able to prevent it from spreading to other nearby paper stacks.

Leading firefighter Adrian Farrow, from Medway Fire Station, said: "HMS Leeds Castle was moored in one of the basins and the crew offered the use of their massive pump to keep us supplied with water. They were extremely helpful."

He said there was a strong breeze when the blaze broke out, shortly before 6pm, but fortunately it blew smoke and flames towards the River. Otherwise the situation could have been far worse.

The paper stack was owned by Nordic Recycling, a company which exports scrap paper from the UK to Scandinavia where it is re-pulped.