A HOUSE was badly damaged by fire after the conservatory exploded.

It happened at a terraced property opposite Medway Maritime Hospital at Gillingham in the early hours of Saturday morning.

A Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said that the fire was initially started by a faulty electrical appliance inside the conservatory.

Because the conservatory was double-glazed it retained the heat, which built up until the plastic framing began to buckle. Eventually air was sucked in and there was an explosion.

Hot air was funnelled upwards and this blew in the windows of an upstairs bedroom, setting fire to polystyrene ceiling tiles.

The heat also destroyed roof felt in the loft space, but the timbers were left undamaged.

The owner of the house, John Goffin, was said to be asleep on a sofa in the front room of the house, when the explosion occurred at around 3.30am.

The alarm was raised by a neighbour, who heard the bang, called 999 and went to see that Mr Goffin was safe.

Five fire appliances attended the blaze, from various fire stations across Medway.

These included a hydraulic platform, which enabled firefighters to remove roof tiles and extinguish the blaze to prevent it spreading to neighbouring properties.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus climbed through the loft hatch into the roof space of the house to deal with the fire there.

A victim support unit from Gravesend was brought in to take care of Mr Goffin, said to be self-employed and in his 50s.

The following morning he was back at the property to supervise boarding-up operations, but he was too distraught to talk about the incident.

Neighbour Bernard Chalker, said: “All I can say is that the firefighters responded very quickly and did an excellent job in preventing the fire spreading.”