More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
"We've had the best part of two years of hell."
That's the feeling of one mum who was forced out of her property after a devastating fire tore through an apartment block in 2017.
The Holborough Lakes blaze emptied 22 apartments on the morning of Saturday, September 16, leaving dozens of people fleeing for their lives and facing up to the reality of losing everything that made their house a home.
Residents who were left homeless after a fire in Snodland can finally return home after almost two years
Charlotte Passingham was among those affected and has now finally been told she can pick up her keys and move back in next month, but the 42-year-old does not look upon the news with a sense of joy or relief at getting her home back.
For her, and teenage daughter, Connie, it's just the next stage of an ordeal that has turned their lives upside down.
"I remember everyone banging on the doors and pulling people out, and then just having to stand and watch my home burn," she recalls.
Still in shock, Charlotte then had to try and find alternative accommodation, as rental prices in the surrounding areas sky-rocketed with 22 households simultaneously scrambling for somewhere to live.
After living in a hotel for four weeks, she eventually decided to move to Sevenoaks, closer to where she works for a healthcare company, and admits she's tried to avoid returning to Holborough as much as she can, to avoid the stress and upset it has caused.
As the months progressed, and the affected residents were told of various delays and complications in rebuilding their homes, the strain continued to take its toll, and the relationship Charlotte was in at the time of the fire eventually broke down.
On top of that, she's been suffering from anxiety, for which she now takes medication, and has suffered sleepless nights trying to get her head around the scale of what happened to her and her family in what was essentially a matter of seconds.
"I'm a completely different person to who I was before all this happened - it's stolen so much of my life," she said.
"My daughter is off to university in September and has had her education completely disrupted.
"I guess she's been hardened by it all, she's very grown up now, but she's had to watch me get quite ill at times and missed a lot of the fun people should be having when they're 17 or 18.
"She's had to see her mum walk around like a zombie for so long - we've absolutely lived and breathed all this.
"I can't really remember her 18th birthday - I can't get any of that time back and that makes me really sad.
"I've basically had more than 18 months of my life taken away from me."
One would perhaps expect news of being able to finally return to the property within weeks would come as some respite for Charlotte, but for her, things are not as they should be.
Despite her insurance policy insisting a like-for-like rebuild, from what she has seen there are various fixtures and fittings that are not where they should be, meaning she'll have to pay out more herself to put things right.
"We've hit obstacle upon obstacle about what should be going in there," she said.
"It might seem trivial talking about something like a shaving point, but this is our home, we've been out of it for 18 months and we've just been waiting and waiting to go back.
"The majority of people I've spoken to feel exactly the same as me - it's just chaos, there's no rhyme or reason to it, and it makes me angry."
Fire chiefs admitted the cause of that devastating blaze may never be known, but Charlotte says that even if they did find some answers, they would be worth precious little to those having to pick up the pieces.
She said: "I'm quite pragmatic about the fire, and I'm realistic - even if I found out who was responsible, did they do it on purpose? Probably not.
"As much as it would add a bit of closure, it wouldn't really change anything."
