TWO young Polish men escaped with their lives but were left facing a bleak Christmas after a fire broke out in their kitchen on Christmas Eve.

Friends Lucas Niechaj and Arthur Mawer had gone to bed and were both asleep at their rented house in Bower Lane, Maidstone, on Christmas Eve when their fridge developed a fault and caught fire at around 11pm.

Neighbours dialled 999 after seeing smoke pouring from the kitchen. Two pumps from Maidstone's White Watch were quickly on the scene.

Firefighters broke into the house and, using breathing apparatus, searched through the smoke until they reached the two men who were still upstairs and led them to safety.

The small fire was quickly contained but the downstairs of the house was extensively damaged by smoke.

The men were left facing Christmas with no food and no electricity as a result of damage to power cables.

Mr Niechaj, 23, who was spending his second Christmas in this country, had only moved into the house a week previously.

He said: "It's certainly not the best Christmas I've ever had, but it could have been worse. At least we weren't hurt."