The cause of a huge blaze which resulted in explosions being heard across an industrial estate has been revealed.

The fire at the Ron Dolton Transport yard in Gas Road, Murston near Sittingbourne, was caused by a welding accident.

Black smoke filled the air during the blaze, which involved three trailers and tyres.

Fire crews were called to the yard at around 10.50am and the call ended at 11.54am.

A spokesman for the service said: “A fire at an industrial premises in Gas Road, in Murston, Sittingbourne, is now out.

“Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used hose reel jets and main jets to extinguish a fire involving three trailers.

“No injuries were reported.”

This afternoon, a spokesman for Ron Dolton Transport told KentOnline how the fire started.

He said: “The fire was caused by a welding accident which saw some tyres set alight.

“The main thing is no one was hurt and secondly no damage was caused.

“It is now all cleaned up and everything in the yard has gone back to normal."

People working on the Eurolink industrial estate reported hearing explosions during the incident.

Steve Pearson, 45, who works at Model World, said: "It happened right behind us on Gas Road that runs along the creek.

“There's a transport depot there.

"I heard an explosion then someone from the store next door came running over to say there is a fire out the back of your store.

"I went to open the back door to have a look and that's when I saw this large cloud of black smoke around 50m away.

"I then heard another explosion and more fire and thought I best get out of the way and went back inside.

"It's lucky the wind was blowing the other way otherwise it would've filled the store with the smoke.

"I heard about five or six explosions in all.”

Another witness said: “I heard six explosions, three were really loud. With the steelworks around here it’s not unusual to hear loud bangs but this was different.

“I went to see what was going on and saw smoke and heard the fire engines coming.

“It seemed to be coming from the roundabout turn-off for the football club."