Kent Fire and Rescue Service responded to a fire in a Montford Close, Canterbury, after receiving a 999 call to their Emergency Control Centre at 4.59am. Two fire engines were immediately sent, arriving at the house within minutes.A young woman in a downstairs bedroom, which was next to the front door, woke to the smell of smoke and screamed, alerting her partner and the other five occupants. Fortunately, they all managed to escape safely. The property had hard wired smoke alarms which were also sounding.Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus located the fire in the ground floor bedroom. They used a hose reel jet to quickly extinguish the blaze but unfortunately because the bedroom door had been left open as the couple left the house, it allowed the fire to spread to the hallway and main front door. The bedroom was destroyed and the rest of the house suffered extensive heat and smoke damage.The blaze is believed to have been caused after a towel was left on a clothes airer too close to a storage heater.Crew Manager, Paul Moore said: “These young people were very fortunate, had they not reacted so quickly some of them could have found themselves trapped upstairs with their exit route blocked."Please always switch portable heaters off before you go to bed and ensure they are positioned at least a metre away from any combustible materials such as paper, curtains, furniture or clothes, and well away from anything which could knock them over."The British Red Cross are providing practical support to the occupants and fire crews will be visiting neighbouring properties later today, giving fire safety advice.