Allotments were set alight twice in one night.

Firefighters from Medway station were called out to sheds on fire at the allotments in Street End Road Chatham twice overnight.

The first broke out at 1.50am and the crews spent an hour quashing the flames and dampening down.

At 4.03am they got a second call to the same allotments for more sheds alight.

Crew manager Jim West said it took another hour to quell that blaze and police were also called.

They are treating the blazes as suspicious.

It comes less than a week after another fire at the same allotments.

On Sunday 15 a blaze destroyed a shed and a fire service spokesman said: “It could have been suspicious ignition because it was four in the morning and someone could have gone and set it on fire.

“But it was next to a compost heap so that could have self-combusted because of the gases.”

If compost piles are not managed properly, they may ignite because of heat produced by bacterial fermentation.