Gillingham Street Angels charity suffers £20,000 damage in freak tumble dryer fire

A charity is working to repair its facilities after a freak fire caused £20,000 of damage.

Gillingham Street Angels boss Neil Charlick was at home with his wife, Tracy, when he received a notification about a problem at the charity’s warehouse in Jenkins Dale. in Chatham.

The 54-year-old told KentOnline: “I received an email that one of the security cameras broke and then a few minutes later another one broke.

“We thought someone had broken into the building, but when we arrived we realized there was a fire.

“I stupidly went into the building myself to try to put it out, but the flames were too strong.

“Tracy called the fire department and they arrived quickly and were first class. It could have been a disaster if they hadn’t come.”

Mr Charlick, who has worked for the charity for seven years, later learned the incident was caused by a problem with a switched off tumble dryer in the engineering room.

Fortunately no one was injured in the fire – which broke out shortly after 5.30pm last Friday – but it cost the award-winning charity thousands of pounds at just its busiest time of the year.

The room was full of electrical appliances which the staff repaired and sent to their charity shops to be sold.

Mr Charlick said: “The electricity is going to be the big thing to fix.

“This knocked out many lights and alarms, and caused possibly up to £20,000 worth of damage.

“And it’s also that time of year when we are very busy: a lot of people need our help.”

Gillingham Street Angels supports people living in Medway affected by homelessness, financial hardship and food poverty.

The organization serves approximately 25,000 people per month and operates community food banks and soup kitchens.

But its team also helps in other ways, with school uniform banks, charity shops, recycling schemes and a selection of other free health and wellbeing services.

Mr Charlick says his staff and volunteers have done an incredible job since the accident to get the association back to full operation.

“We moved a lot of our stuff to another location this week, electricians and staff helped us this week so we can continue to do what we do,” he said.

“They did an incredible job. I am privileged to have a wonderful team.

“While we repair the damage, we’re getting back to work. We still need to make sure the people of Medway have a good Christmas.”

A fire service spokesperson said: “Kent Fire and Rescue Service were called at 5.38pm on December 13 to a warehouse in Jenkins Dale, Chatham, following reports of a fire .

“Five fire engines were present and crews, wearing breathing apparatus, used hose reel jets to extinguish the flames.

“No injuries have been reported and the cause is believed to be accidental and linked to an electrical fault.”