by Lynn Cox

lcox@thekmgroup.co.uk

Firefighters were called to put out a chimney fire in Gillingham on Wednesday afternoon.

A crew from Medway fire station were called out to Cornwall Road at about 1.20pm after a neighbour of the homeowner realised there was something wrong when he noticed smoke billowing out of his chimney, and knew his neighbour had a gas fire.

When the crew arrived with their height ladder, they had to gain entry to the property because the elderly homeowner was out.

A spokesman for Kent Fire and Rescue Service, said: "It was quite difficult to find the seat of the fire as it was behind the gas fire.

We had to wait for Transco to come out and disconnect it before it was safe to remove it from the fireplace.

"After we did, we could see there was a lot of soot which had built up over the years, it was this that had caught fire.

"We used a shovel to remove from the chimney and damped down the whole fireplace until it was completely cooled down."