One of the most savage fires in Canterbury’s living memory took place a decade ago this week.

The Courts furniture store on the corner of Upper Chantry Lane and New Dover Road went up in flames on an otherwise ordinary Wednesday afternoon.

It sent huge plumes of dense black smoke billowing into sky.

Emergency services evacuated nearby buildings and closed off a large area around the store.

Mechanic Tom Richards, 32, was working at the Oaten Hill Mews Garage some 100 yards from Courts.

This week he said: “Blimey, I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since then. It feels more like about five.

“What I remember from the day was that it was about lunchtime and I was thinking about some food and then suddenly it was chaos.

“You could hear all this commotion and they were telling us to get back because the wall which fronted on to Upper Chantry Lane was going to collapse. It never did, though.

“They closed off a massive area around the building. It had a huge effect on the city because Courts sat on such a prominent junction.”

The building was around 100 yards from the Kentish Gazette’s former office in St George’s Place.

Then editor Bob Bounds cleared the first three pages of the October 7 edition while chief reporter Gerry Warren, who is still on the staff, took a series of dramatic photographs.

The 58-year-old recalled: “I was waiting to the take the photo with my first ever digital camera and then suddenly there was this eruption of flames. That was when I squeezed the trigger.

“It was a very chaotic scene. There were lots of people running away and then you had the police urging people to get away. There were rubber-neckers turning up to watch.”

The following day the Gazette reported: “Around 500 workers at the neighbouring BT offices were immediately evacuated.

“All were accounted for and there were no reports of any injuries.

"The wind sent thick smoke across St George’s Place and New Dover Road and police dispersed the growing number of onlookers and widened the cordoned-off area.

"A first aid post with oxygen was set up while staff at Blockbusters, Safeway, other businesses, and students from Canterbury College and Stafford House, plus several residents were evacuated.

“Some were treated for minor smoke inhalation at the scene. At one point, the cordoned-off area stretched from Longport across to Oaten Hill, and from St Augustine’s Road down New Dover Road to the Lower Bridge Street roundabout at the city wall.”

In January of 2004, planning permission was granted to demolish Courts and replace it with flats. Today it is a block of 42 flats with 20 houses on what was the car park.

A week after the blaze, the Gazette reported that police and fire investigators were probing its cause and had not ruled out arson. Businesses around Courts, however, were operating as normal.

In December of 2004, the fire service concluded that the blaze had been so severe that it was impossible to determine how it started.

Spokesman Chris Nelson said: “It will therefore be recorded as unknown.”

Courts was founded in Canterbury by William Henry Court in 1850. The company was sold to a pair of brothers in 1945 who expanded it across the UK and then into the West Indies, where it continues to operate even though there are no longer any branches in this country.