RELIEVED residents say they feared for their lives as they waited to be rescued from a burning block of flats.

Two cars were set alight in a car port underneath flats in Russell Quay in Gravesend at just after midnight today (August 4), and the fire trapped the block's 10 residents inside.

They had to wait for firefighters to arrive and put out the flames and clear the smoke before they could escape from the five-storey block, off West Street, and they say they were “terrified”.

Kirsty Mahony, who lives in a top-floor apartment with her boyfriend Peter Smith, said: “Pete woke me up and I could hear voices and popping so I thought there must be a party next door.

“But then he was screaming ‘get out, there’s a fire’, so we went to the front door to go down the stairs but there were flames and smoke so we couldn’t get out.

“The flames and smoke were rising so we got the other people in the building and got them up to our flat, and then there was nothing we could do but wait.

“We could hear explosions, which must have been the tyres bursting, and when we looked out the window all we could see were flames.

“It was only a few mintues before the firefighters arrived, but it seemed like ages, and all the time I was worried they wouldn’t get here in time and we’d die.”

The 32-year-old nurse says she was “incredibly relieved” when the firefighters arrived, and praised them for getting everyone out of the building so quickly.

Adrian Barnes lives on the floor below, and he says that at one point he thought he was going to have to jump from his balcony to escape the smoke and flames.

The 40-year-old said: “When everybody else ran upstairs to the top-floor flat, I went into my place to get a hammer to break the window in the stairwell.

“But there was too much smoke when I tried to go back out, so I had to stay inside, and it crossed my mind I might have to jump because the flames and smoke were rising so quickly.”

Mr Barnes, a project manager for Lloyds Bank, says he is amazed nobody was injured and there is no serious damage to any of the apartments in the building.

Nysha Kajawu, aged 32, lives in a flat on the first floor with her 25-year-old sister Kuda and was awake when the fire started.

She said: “At around 12.30am we could smell burning, so we opened the balcony to look out and smoke just rushed inside.

“We looked out the front window and saw flames, and we called 999 and then tried to get out of the building, but there were too many flames.”

Miss Kajawu, a mental health nurse, and her sister then went upstairs to the top floor to wait for the firefighters.

She said: “I was really scared while we waited, worrying the fire would reach us and we’d die, but now I’m just so relieved and grateful we’re all alive and not injured.”

Kent police has launched an investigation into the fire, which is believed to be suspicious, and officers are still at the scene this afternoon carrying out forensic work.