FORTY people fled from a social club in Gillingham last night as fire ripped through an upstairs flat. Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus pulled an unconscious man from the smoke-filled room.

More than 30 firefighters were called to the Rock Avenue Working Men’s Club, in Gillingham, at about 9.30pm. Passer-by Alexandra Gray, 27, raised the alarm after she saw the flames "flying out of the windows".

About 40 members of the Bredhurst Receiving And Transmitting Society (BRATS) were in the club at the time, hosting their weekly quiz night.

Laura Morten-Darley, 22, said at first they thought the fire was across the road. She said: "The lights went out and we saw the reflection of the flames in a window. We all ran to the other side of the room to see where the fire was. It took a couple of seconds before we realised it was above us. It was really scary."

Fire crews were on the scene in three minutes. Two teams wearing breathing apparatus went into the building.

Leading firefighter Chris Caswell said: "There was a function in the social club downstairs at the time but the people did a good job of evacuating the building in time."

Mr Caswell said: "We quickly established that there was a person inside the building, from what people outside told us.

"We went into the flat from different ends of the building. The first breathing apparatus team was faced with zero visibility -- we couldn’t see a hand in front of our face.

"Within three minutes we had found a casualty who we pulled out with the help of other members of our crew. It was a man of about 38 who was unconscious from smoke inhalation and he was alone in the flat."

The man was taken to the burns unit at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, were he was treated for smoke inhalation.

BRATS founder Stan White, from Wigmore, said at first members thought the bar staff were joking when they said a fire had broken out above them. He said: "We all just sat there waiting for the lights to come back on, but when we realised what was happening we got outside as quick as we could."

Those who had been inside praised the emergency services for their handling of the situation.

The society is now left wondering where it will hold next Thursday’s quiz.

The police allowed limited numbers of people back into the building at 11.15pm to collect belongings, before securing the area.

Leading firefighter Caswell added: "Once the man had been rescued, firefighters went back into the burning building.

"We re-entered the flat to tackle the what was a substantial fire in the kitchen area. We suspect the cause of the fire to be a chip pan."

He added: "We encourage people to buy a smoke alarm. We didn’t find one in this case.

"Because of the swift response of our firefighters and the professionalism of all involved including our control staff a life was saved by quick action and quick thinking."