Young children were among residents forced to flee a block of flats as firefighters battled to stop a kitchen blaze spreading.

Crews were called to Albatross Avenue, Strood, just after 11pm yesterday after residents realised they were unable to put out the chip pan fire.

Eleven people were in the block, including three children under five who were carried to safety by firefighters and treated for breathing in smoke, but did not require hospital treatment.

Watch manager Ken Spratt said the chip pan had caught alight when it was left unattended by two men.

“They’d attempted to fight the fire themselves with a fire blanket. He thought better of chucking a bucket of water he was halfway through filling up on it.

“It was getting too hot so they shut the kitchen door, which was the best thing they could do.”

With smoke spreading through the building, watch manager Spratt chose to evacuate the flats.

He said the children from a neighbouring family were vulnerable to smoke inhalation.

“They were coughing a bit as they were very young. We carried each one out because they were scared - getting woken up at near enough midnight by mummy saying you’ve got to wake up and being handed to a fireman can be a bit scary.”

Firefighters had the blaze under control quickly and although the kitchen was destroyed by fire the rest of the building was only slightly affected by smoke.

Residents were allowed back in their homes at about 11.30pm.

Although the two men in the flat had left the chip pan unattended, watch manager Spratt said the smoke alarm and the decision to shut the kitchen door had helped prevent a potential disaster.

“It would have been a lot more serious,” he added.