A group of young boys helped avoid a disaster on Sunday when they spotted smoke coming from a building site in Maidstone.

Dylan Lynch, nine, and his pals Freddie and Leo, 10, and Janaz and Amadeus, both nine, were playing on their bicycles in Coxheath at around 5.30pm when they saw smoke curling from a property under construction on the Chartway building site off Forstal Lane.

They immediately raced to the nearest occupied home and alerted the householder who called the fire service.

Some of the boys then rode to the edge of the estate to guide the fire engines to the scene of the fire when they arrived

Three fire crews attended and wore breathing apparatus as they used hose reel jets to put out the flames.

No one was injured.

Dylan's father Jamie Lynch, of Lasius Drive, said: "The boys showed real public spirited action. While some rode to the entrance, others searched for a spanner to unlock the Harris fencing around the site so that the firemen would have immediate access."

Fire crews were able to leave the scene after an hour.

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