Firefighters have praised a couple's quick thinking for helping prevent their house from catching fire.

They were sleeping at the property in Parsonage Lane, Bredgar, when they woke to the smell of smoke at the top of the stairs at around 1.40am.

But when they couldn't work out what was causing it they called 999.

Two fire engines from Sittingbourne were sent to the scene and used a thermal image camera to trace the source and prevent what they said could have been a "serious blaze".

Watch Manager Neil Ryder, said: “When we arrived at the house, there was no smoke evident but all our fire engines carry an excellent piece of kit called a thermal image camera, which immediately pinpointed a very large hot spot in the middle of a first floor rear bedroom floor that wasn’t visible to the eye.”

Firefighters pulled back carpet and removed an area of floorboards to expose the joists below and found a large one with a substantial degree of charring, which is believed to have been caused by an electrical fault.

They were able to quickly damp down and cut away part of the joist, which provided reassurance to the couple.

Neil added: “Fortunately the couple woke and called us when they did as this could have been much worse and turned into a serious blaze, but their quick response made all the difference and meant the damage to their home was minimal.”

The property had working smoke alarms.