Firefighters were called to a Chatham fort yesterday afternoon after a fire started in an electric box shutting down the power to the site.

Crews from Medway station were called at 12.15 to the fire at Fort Luton, Magpie Hall Road.

A spokesman from the station said: "A small concrete bunker which houses the electrics for the site was destroyed by the fire.

"The main unit was sparking which caused the other components in the bunker to catch fire.

"We had to wait for UK Power Networks to come and isolate it before we could put all the flames out."

Firefighters were at the scene for about an hour and a half and used dry powder to extinguish the flames.

The fort is used by education provider, Love 2 Learn during the week. A spokesman from the group said that the damage is limited to the electrics only and that the bunker the main electrics were housed in only suffered smoke damage.

She added: "Love 2 Learn will run as normal in a day or so and the Volunteers Work Day on Saturday will also run as normal on our first day back after the Christmas Break."

Fort Luton was built between 1876 and 1892 and is one of the five Victorian land front forts built to defend the overland approaches to Chatham. Every Saturday volunteers help carry out maintenance and restoration tasks.