Fire At A College

Two Injured In College Campus Fire

A fire at a college in Kent on Saturday left two contractors who were carrying out redevelopment work on the site with injuries.

They were working at the Brook Street campus of West Kent College in Tonbridge when a fire broke out in one of the buildings.

One of the men sustained flash burns, while his colleague suffered from smoke inhalation and shock.

The campus was closed to staff, students and visitors on Monday, a college spokesman said, while investigations into the cause of the fire were carried out.

Firefighters were also forced to tackle a second fire in Tonbridge, at a disused office block in Quarry Hill. No one was injured in the fire, which spread across three of the building's floors.

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David Urpeth, an expert in work accidents at law firm Irwin Mitchell said: "This was a serious accident at work.  The construction industry is the industrial sector where a worker is most like to be injured or killed following a work accident.

"As such, I would urge employers and others responsible for worker safety to redouble their efforts and provide workers with a safe place and a safe system of work so as to ensure that the misery caused by an industrial accident is avoided."