This is where the accident happened all those years ago:
google.co.uk/maps/@51.26843 … 312!8i6656
Less than 100 yards further down this short section of road is the scene of one of the other locally long remembered tragedies when in 1970 a fire engine crashed and caught fire while answering an emergency call.
"Maidstone’s Water Tender, a Commer K2, had been turned out to a fire in Bentlif Close Maidstone. The appliance skidded on the wet road and hit a tree in College Road and caught fire. The crew were trapped as the force of the crash had jammed all the doors and windows shut and they great difficulty escaping from the cab as the appliance was about 6ft off the ground, having gone up the trunk of the tree which had been felled by the force of the accident.
The OiC sitting in the front was unable to move because of his injuries and the driver had been knocked unconscious. The first man to get out did so by climbing through from the crew cab which was on fire, to the front and over the the injured Oic and out through the front nearside door. He then helped four of the crew already sufferring from burns to their hands and faces, to struggle clear via the nearside rear door.
The last man in the rear crew cab had no choice but to fight his way through the heart of the fire to get out of the offside rear door. The least injured men using a ladder, managed to get the injured OiC down from the cab, and Driver Roger Lynn was heroically rescued by a member of the public George Stoner from College Road. He suffered severe burns to his hands in effecting the rescue of Driver Lynn.
A second appliance, mobile to standby at Maidstone from Larkfield, was immediatly ordered on to the incident. Upon arrival, they had to use foam to put out the fire which was by now burning furiously. The ET (Emergency Tender) was also sent from Maidstone.
Of the eight men rushed to Medway Hospital, two were critically injured and put in to the intensive care unit, one of these was the driver, Roger Lynn who was later transferred to Mount Vernon Special Burns Unit where he had to have his severely crushed leg amputated. Tragically the other Fireman, Malcolm Farrow from Maidstone Fire Station was too ill to be moved due the terrible burns he sufferred, and died four later. This was the ultimate sacrifice paid by the Farrow family to the Brigade as now both Father and Son had died in the line of duty . Mr Farrow Senior who was a Retained Fireman at Loose Fire Station was killed at the Oakwood Hospital disaster in 1957.
Mr George Stoner was awarded a Framed Certificate by the Society for The Protection of Life from Fire for the part he played at the incident."
Source of Information 50 Vigilant Years. History of KFB.