Shock in Herne Bay as man on fire in Oakdale Road sparks huge emergency response
13:00, 24 April 2014
A shocked witness has told how neighbours battled to save a man found on fire in a Herne Bay street today.
Colleen Damms said people rushed with buckets of water and a hose to extinguish the man ablaze in Oakdale Road this morning.
The man - in his 50s and who is understood to live in the road with an elderly female friend - is being treated at a specialist burns unit in East Grinstead after receiving urgent medical help at the scene.
Mother-of-two Colleen - who lives in Mickleburgh Hill right opposite the junction of Oakdale Road - was woken by the sound of screaming outside at around 7am.
The 44-year-old said: "My kids told me something was going on and I looked out of my bedroom window and saw people running into a garage with buckets of water and a hose.
"I know a chap lives there and I've seen him coming and going and doing his garden.
"Then lots of police cars and ambulances turned up and they brought him out on a stretcher. I hardly recognised him because it looked like he had lost a lot of his hair.
"They brought him around the corner and the paramedics were working on him for quite a while. It was pretty dramatic."
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Police shut Mickleburgh Hill while paramedics treated the man before he was flown to hospital.
Officers were called by a concerned neighbour, who spotted the man ablaze as they opened their front door.
Emergency crews rushed to the scene - with a fire engine, three ambulances and patrol cars spotted in the road.
Fire crews confirmed the blaze had been put out by the time an engine arrived on the scene.
The road was shut off between the Canterbury Road mini roundabout and Douglas Road.
The man was driven to a waiting air ambulance, which had landed at Herne Bay Junior School in Kings Road.
Video: Police at the scene in Oakdale Road
Police say they are waiting to talk to him about the circumstances of the fire, but say they are not treating it as suspicious.
