A serious fire at the Duke of York's Royal Military School, in Dover, has destroyed half of a dormitory building.

The Duke of York's was founded in 1803

The fire, which began on the roof of the building around 11am last Friday, took 50 firefighters to put out. In total, eight fire appliances were used along with a command support unit, water unit and an incident support unit.
 

The building was unoccupied and reportedly under repair as the school’s boarding pupils were on Easter holidays.

A spokesman for Kent Fire and Rescue Service said: “The first crews on the scene fought extremely hard to confine the fire to one area of the roof, but because of high winds in the area the flames were fanned, resulting in the fire spreading through most of the void.

“While one team of firefighters wearing safe access equipment tackled the fire in the roof, crews elsewhere tackled the fire externally using hose reels and jets. Later, they carried out a salvage operation on the ground and first floor.”

Fire crews scaled their response down to four pumps at 4pm the same day. The fire was finally out the following morning, and crews left the school at 9am.

While the fire is not being treated as suspicious, an investigation is underway.