Sam Sellick thought his working day would be quiet. After all, it was Christmas Day.

But December 25, 2013, will be forever etched on the mind of firefighter Sam, who is crew manager of Greenwatch in the control room at Kent Fire & Rescue on Sutton Road, Maidstone.

Some 300 households awoke to find they were under water after continuous heavy rain.

The drama, distress and tears it caused were widespread – Maidstone and Tonbridge town centres were flooded, while Yalding was one of the worst-hit areas.

Wateringbury and East Peckham also suffered badly.

But there has been little focus on one of the key emergency control rooms that coped with the disaster as it unfolded.

Sam, also an on-call firefighter at Rainham, is manager of a six-strong crew whose control room duties include taking 999 calls and mobilising fire engines to the scene.

They also maintain direct communication with crews at the scene.

On that fateful day, Sam was at his desk at 7am to start his early shift.

“I thought it would be a reasonably routine time, but immediately I came in we started dealing with a never-ending stream of flooding calls which required not only sending off fire appliances but mobilising boats and coordinating with other agencies,” said Sam.

“Calls were coming telling us of cars stuck on bridges, people trapped in their homes. Yalding was particularly bad.

“At one point we had to get Sky Television news to back off with their helicopter as its whirling blades above the flood areas were so loud we could hardly hear our team speak to us from the scene.

“Yalding was the main focus of our operation, the village had been hit hard.

“We worked non-stop and kept going by being supplied with endless cups of tea and just a sandwich.

“Because I’m single and was living alone here with no family – my mum lives in Paphos, Cyprus – I left exhausted and texted my friend to tell him what had happened.

“He very kindly invited me round to a late Christmas dinner, which was nice.

“But it’s what I like about this job. No day is ever the same and I enjoy that.”

Fire service took almost 500 calls in three days

Some 90mm of rain fell in the Upper Medway catchment area between December 21 and 23, with half falling on one day alone on already saturated ground.

The floods lead to almost 500 calls to the fire service alone between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day; 295 in Tonbridge and 194 from Maidstone, Malling and The Weald.

Thirty-six households across Maidstone borough were placed in temporary accommodation, though dozens more went to stay with friends or relatives until flood waters receded.

It was calculated that 205 homes were flooded in Yalding, 102 in Tonbridge and 12 in Maidstone.

The Leigh Barrier was raised to protect areas around Tonbridge, with Yalding residents claiming the action contributed to the level of flooding in the village.

The Environment Agency defended its actions, stating that without it flooding would have been as bad as that in 1960 and 1968, when Tonbridge High Street was 6ft under water.

Yalding lies at the conjunction of three rivers, the Teise, Beult and Medway which, on their own, would have been sufficient to cause flooding, said the Environment Agency.

A partnership between the county council, borough councils and the Environment Agency aims to stop the same happening again with a £36 million investment scheme known as the River Medway Flood Storage Areas project.

Proposals are due to be presented in July 2016, with work commencing in 2020 and completed in 2022.

The Environment Agency estimates more than 3,000 homes and businesses in Yalding, Collier Street, Tonbridge and Hildenborough are at risk of flooding, with 2,060 considered as being at significant risk.