Two people were taken to hospital after inhaling smoke in a flat fire in Gillingham in the early hours of this morning.

Firefighters were called to Trafalgar Street at 2.45am after a mobile charging device which had been left on a sofa overheated and set the furniture alight.

The occupants were alerted by their fire alarm and escaped the flat before alerting their neighbours to the blaze.

A crew from Medway and a crew from Strood attended, and also rescued two cats from the property.

Crew manager Ben Fletcher said: “It’s important to test smoke alarms. If they hadn’t had a working smoke detector it would have been a different outcome.

“People need to be mindful not to leave portable devices charging overnight, there’s a danger of them overheating and catching things alight around them.”

Fire crews wore breathing apparatus and used a high pressure jet to tackle the fire, a ventilation fan to clear the smoke and gave the residents oxygen.