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HomeLocal NewsProbe launches following ‘suspicious’ blaze at former college

Probe launches following ‘suspicious’ blaze at former college

A blaze, which broke out at a derelict building, is being treated as suspicious.

Fire crews and police officers were called to Fort Pitt Hill in Chatham just after 7pm Sunday (July 6).

It is understood crews were called to the former UCA building
It is understood crews were called to the former UCA building

It is thought that the blaze happened inside the former University College for the Creative Arts (UCA), which has previously been targeted by vandals and rough sleepers.

A passerby said they saw several emergency service vehicles parked near the site that evening.

A spokesman for the fire service confirmed five fire engines and a height vehicle attended while crews used flexi-packs and hose reel jets to extinguish the blaze.

There are no reported injuries, and crews had left the scene just after 9pm.

The cause is being treated as suspicious, and a police investigation is underway.

Anyone with information that may assist should call 01474 366149, quoting reference 46/115193/25.

It comes after crews battled a blaze a St John Fisher School. Picture: Shaun Colyer
It comes after crews battled a blaze a St John Fisher School. Picture: Shaun Colyer

It comes after the emergency services were called to a blaze at the derelict St John Fisher site, in Ordnance Street, Chatham, earlier that day.

People living and travelling near the area were advised to close their windows and doors due to heavy smoke.

KentOnline recently caught yobs on camera running amok inside the abandoned building, which has been shut for more than three years.

It is also not the first time the former college, which closed in 2023, has been targeted.

Last month, fire crews and police officers were called to reports of suspected trespassers; however, no one was found.

There are plans to transform the premises into a luxury housing scheme with rooftop gardens.

The former college is to be transformed into a £20m housing scheme
The former college is to be transformed into a £20m housing scheme

In its heyday, it was home to some of the most illustrious names in the arts and fashion world.

Dame Zandra Rhodes, Dame Tracey Emin and Karen Millen all honed their skills at the college, which had a campus in Maidstone and was previously known as Medway College of Design.

After a history spanning 170 years, UCA closed the Medway campus because of spiralling running costs and cuts in government funding.

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