Tributes have been paid to a man who lost his life in a house fire.

The blaze broke out last Thursday at 10pm, in Woodland Way, Bidborough, Tunbridge Wells.

The man in his late 30s has been named locally as Gareth Day.

A total of 35 firefighters and five fire engines tackled the blaze overnight and did not leave until 10.30am the following morning.

Craig Fleming, head of sixth form at The Skinners' School shared memories of his former pupil.

"Gareth was a lovely young man with a very good sense of humour. He loved his rugby, he had represented the school in his junior and middle years on the field. He was popular with his year group, and his parents, particularly his dad George were big supporters of the school's rugby.

"I remember Gareth and his father with hundreds of other Skinners pupils staunchly supporting the boys in red and black at a match in Twickenham back in 1993.

"It is a tragedy for the entire school community, he was a young man who had his whole life in front of him. He will be fondly remembered by his peers and by those who taught him.

Mr Fleming has taught at the school for 28 years, and had known Gareth for his entire secondary school life when he started in 1991 until he graduated in 1998. He revealed that they regularly bumped into each other as adults, the last time being just "a month or two ago."

"Gareth regularly used to walk back at the same time as day as me, I live in Southborough and he lived over in Bidborough, so I had seen him quite a bit over the last few years.

"This is a tragic waste of life. The Skinners' School sends its sympathies to all of Gareth's family and friends."

After Gareth finished his A-Levels in biology, business studies and geography, he went on to study at Kingston University.

He later went on to work as an IT development officer at Imago.

A spokesperson for Imago said: "It’s with profound sadness that the Imago team heard on Friday, the very sad and tragic news, that our dear colleague of many years, Gareth Day, passed away following a house fire.

"All of us at Imago, staff, volunteers and clients are very shocked and devastated at this awful news. Gareth will be remembered for the kind hearted, generous, intelligent and funny man he was. There were literally no lengths he wouldn’t go to ensure all of his Dial 2 Drive clients’ needs were met.

"He was dedicated to Imago in his time here, and considered everyone, staff and volunteers, part of his family.

"Gareth started his time with Imago as a volunteer on Dial 2 Drive, our volunteer community transport scheme, and later was employed, and successfully ran and grew the scheme to cover all of West Kent, benefitting those in the community who could not easily access public transport due to older age, ill health or disability.

"He will be sadly missed by all who worked and knew him."

A police spokesperson confirmed that one person died at the scene and a second person, a man aged in his 70s, was taken to a local hospital for treatment for smoke inhalation.

The father of Gareth, named locally as George Day remains in hospital in a stable condition with no life-threatening injuries.

A fire investigation team remained at the scene until 8.30pm on Friday. The fire is thought to have started accidentally and is being treated as non-suspicious.

Formal identification is yet to take place and a date for an inquest opening has not been set.