A CAR repair business in the Front Brents area of Faversham was extensively damaged by large fire this afternoon.

A man suffered from the effects of breathing in smoke but did not require hospital treatment. The cause of the blaze is not yet known.

Crowds of bystanders gathered when the blaze began shortly after 1pm. Two tenders from Faversham fire station were called to the scene and two engines from Canterbury and one from Sittingbourne were also mobilised.

The Faversham firefighters were greeted by a violent fire, which they doused down quickly using foam to stop it moving into other units. A thick pall of smoke then enveloped the area.

Sittingbourne station commander Tim Gibson said: "All efforts have been into extinguishing and stopping it moving into the adjacent units."

Quick action by firefighters, he said, had prevented a large blaze getting even worse.

Faversham leading firefighter Ian West said the blaze was raging when the two tenders arrived and people had been evacuated from all the units.

"Our immediate response was to get foam on to the fire," he added. "The foam knocked the fire down really quickly. We had four BA wearers because there were gas cylinders in there."