by Emma Grove

egrove@thekmgroup.co.uk

Part of Sittingbourne town centre ground to a standstill as firefighters battled a blaze at a car showroom.

Crews were called to West Street Car Sales at 3.46pm on Wednesday amid reports people were trapped. They remained at the scene for two hours.

It had started after a cigar was thrown in a bin in the office of the business and quickly spread, damaging the workshop and three flats above.

A Polish couple living in one of the flats were unaware of the fire below until firefighters banged on their door with a sledgehammer. The other flats were unoccupied.

There were no cars in the workshop at the time of the fire. There were cars in the showroom but that was only slightly smoke damaged.

The fire was discovered by an employee who had left and locked up for the night and was walking back after driving a car to another garage for an MoT.

The roads were reopened by 5.45pm but the closures caused traffic chaos in the area.

Crews from Sittingbourne, Sheppey, Faversham and Rainham used breathing apparatus to tackle the fire.

Sittingbourne watch manager Mark Innes warned people to be more careful when getting rid of smoking materials.

He added: "It spread extremely quickly but we managed to save most of the building due to our rapid response and aggressive firefighting tactics.

"We just managed to get it at the critical moment but we were very lucky. It could have been much worse."

Police said the fire is not being treated as suspicious and they are not investigating.