Fire crews from across the county tackled a four-storey blaze at a paper mill on Sunday night.

The blaze at St Regis Paper Mill at Kemsley, Sittingbourne, was discovered at 8.17pm in a paper making machine.

Teams from Sittingbourne quickly responded, but back up engines from Strood, Chatham, Gillingham, Rainham, Faversham, Queenborough, Eastchurch and Teynham were called and on site, in Ridham Avenue, within minutes.

More than 100 firefighters used breathing apparatus and jet hose reels to tackle the fire, which was contained by 11pm. A crew spent the night on site checking for hot spots.

Steve Jeffries, Kent Fire and Rescue Service’s north division manager, praised the crews: “We initially sent four pumps but within 10 minutes of that first call we sent another six and it was increased to 15 appliances soon after, so the response was extremely fast.

“The crews worked really hard in very difficult conditions because it was a severe fire and very hot.

“They’ve managed to limit the damage to the machine itself and saved three-quarters of the roof. The rest of the building was smoke damaged.”

The cause is believed to have been caused by an electrical fault in the machine and is not being treated as suspicious.