Worker at Tonbridge station helped rescue woman from window ledge of a burning building in Tonbridge Road
12:36, 19 October 2020
updated: 13:09, 19 October 2020
A railway station assistant was part of a brave group who rescued a woman stranded on the window ledge of a burning building, and banged on nearby doors to alert sleeping neighbours of the blaze.
Dad-of-one James Phillips, 26, had finished a night shift at Tonbridge station last Sunday, October 11, when a fire spread through a three floor building in Barden Road, opposite the station.
He said: "My colleague saw some smoke above the station, we thought it was probably the bike shed on fire. My supervisor went round to look and then on the radio she said 'quickly, call the fire brigade.'"
The billowing smoke darkened and James made his way to the scene, to see if he could help, to be met by a "massive inferno" spewing out of the windows.
The building houses a massage parlour and a flat above.
Some residents from the apartment block next door were already outside, and James was told by one that the flats were now empty, but he and his colleagues still decided to check.
"I just helped where it was needed. I was banging on doors and people were still in bed. The second you mention 'fire', they run out."
James, who lives in Hamble Road, Tonbridge, admits to being scared.
"Even though I wasn't in the fire, I thought, 'what if something happens? What if something falls?"
A woman in a dressing gown was then spotted sitting on a window ledge, with flames billowing from the window above her.
James believed she must have climbed out of the window to escape the blaze, and looked terrified.
Himself and two other residents ran up the metal stairs to the top floor apartment next door and, between them, helped her down.
He said: "We used a bit of 'to me, to you'. The fire was like a blow torch out of the window, it was surreal. When I was helping the woman I thought 'what am I doing?'"
Some five fire engines arrived after the rescue, at around 7am and battled the blaze for two hours.
The cause is believed to have been accidental and one casualty was passed into the care of paramedics as a precaution, a Kent Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson confirmed.
An ambulance service spokesperson said one person was assessed and treated before being taken to Tunbridge Wells Hospital.
James received a letter from his station manager, recognising his "quick response and actions."
The fire closed shop next door, Zilch-Zero Waste.
In a Facebook post on the morning of the fire, the company said they did not know when the shop could reopen, as they needed the 'structural sign off'.
