A fatal explosion that tragically claimed the life of a mum-of-five is believed to have been triggered by gas in her kitchen
An inquest has opened into the death of Charlane Burvill after she suffered burns to 95% of her body in the blast near Ashford last month.
Also in today’s podcast, a dad has been jailed after telling police he was only living at a cannabis farm in Medway to “water the plants”.
He was found at the five bedroom property along with more than 1,000 plants.
In more drug news, a criminal gang responsible for importing class A drugs in shipments of bananas to Sheerness has been jailed for more than 90 years between them.
Incredibly, it comes as a man from Scotland has also been locked up for a similar scheme – you can hear from the judge at his sentencing.
Bosses in Swale have drawn up a "wish list" of leisure facilities they want to revamp as part of efforts to deal with a potential population boom.
The plans are part of their strategy for sites across the borough over the next 14 years as it expects more than 44,000 extra people to move in.
And you can hear from Britain’s Got Talent winner Sydnie Christmas who’s been chatting on kmfm’s breakfast show.
The Gravesend singer talks about her time on the show and recording her new album.
Can't online news news. You can trust. This is the Kent online podcast. Kate Faulkner. Hello. Hope you're okay. Thank you for downloading today's podcast on Thursday, the 3rd of October. Coming up today, we'll have the details of not one but two criminal gangs who tried to smuggle cocaine into Kent through banana shipments. We'll also hear from Britain's Got Talent winner, Sydney Christmas, who's been on the KMM breakfast show. But first taking a look at our top story today. A fatal explosion that claimed the life of a mama five at a home near Ashford is thought to have been triggered by gas in her kitchen. Nicola has the details from the inquest for us. She joins me now. Nicola, what do we know about the morning of the explosion? Well, emergency crews were called to a property on Canterbury Road in Charing at about 11 30 on the morning of September the 19th. The blast had almost completely destroyed the bungalow. By standards, say Shaan Lane Burville was seen outside the property moments after the explosion. She was in a state of shock talking and trying to get into her car. She was later flown to King's College Hospital in London, but died the following day. The 60 year old had suffered burns to 95% of her body and doctors had no choice but to withdraw life support. There was a lot of speculation at the time about what caused the explosion. What is the inquest found? Well, the inquest into her death opened in Maidstone yesterday. It heard how a significant kitchen liquefied petroleum gas explosion is suspected to have triggered the blast. However, the exact circumstances are still unclear. Can fire and rescue service is yet to release the final results of its investigation and the inquest has now been adjourned until next year. Thanks, Nicola. Just to clarify, the Southeast Coast Ambulance Service initially told Kent Online crews were called to reports of a glider aircraft that had hit the bungalow. It was then later clarified. No plane was involved in the incident. Mrs Burville's dog was also in the house at the time but walked from the rubble to fire crews and was placed under the care of a vet. Kent Online News. An investigation is underway following an alleged sex attack in a supermarket toilet cubicle on Sheppy. A woman told officers it happened in the Tesco on Bridge Road in Sheer Ness on Tuesday afternoon. She was reportedly followed by a man described as around 30 and wearing a black tracksuit. A gang who tried to smuggle cocaine into Kent in a container of bananas have been jailed for a total of more than 90 years. More than a ton of the drug was in a shipment that doctored Sheena's port from Costa Rica in 2021 before being taken to a yard in Longfield. The group was arrested during raids across the country following a lengthy investigation. Meantime, a gangster has been jailed for 20 years over a similar plot in Scotland. James Stevenson was once among the UK's most wanted men. The 59 year old's been sentenced by Judge Lord Eric 18 banana consignments were duly received in Dover. The last of these contained almost a ton of cocaine with a purity of not less than 73% by weight and with the potential to realize in the region of 76 million pounds. During the sentencing, Lord Eric also revealed how he was involved in making class sea drugs at a facility in Rochester. You played a leading role in a complex operation to manufacture and distribute itisolam tablets, a class sea drug. The operation included a manufacturing facility in an industrial estate in Rochester. When the factory was raided, police seized almost 13.5 million tablets with a wholesale value of around £400,000. The machinery in the factory was capable of manufacturing two hundred and fifty eight thousand, pardon, it was capable of manufacturing two hundred and fifty eight thousand tablets per hour. Samurai swords, nunchucks and an extendable baton have been seized from the home of a known drug dealer in Tunbridge. Officers also found cocaine and a thousand pounds in cash while searching Daniel Bruford's property. The 27 year old from Mount Pleasant Circuit in Hildenborough has been remanded in custody before his sentence. A man has been sent to prison after he was found living in a five bedroom home in who that was full of cannabis plants. Amarillo Emiri had been at the Rochester Crescent house for two weeks and says he was only there to water the plants and keep an eye on the cultivation. The 32 year old told the court he'd been offered the work by a group of men who threatened him if he tried to leave. He's been locked up for 36 weeks. Kent Online News. Thousands of pounds worth of illegal tobacco products have been seized as part of a police operation to disrupt supply chains across Kent. Targeted raids have been carried out at retail stores in Maidstone, Sitting Born and Dover. Among the items found were 163 vapes, 75 kilos of hand rolling tobacco and more than 150,000 cigarettes. James Woodette is from Kent Trading Standards. All of these goods were hidden so when you walk into a shop you're not going to see these on display. These are hidden behind false walls, behind false doors, under sinks, things like that and that's why we use detection dogs who can smell the tobacco through the wall or through the hide and indicate then the officers can take action to break open the hide and find the illegal product. And this is just from three different locations in Kent. That's correct. How big is the scale of this problem? Is this right across the county? Yes, so the team work on intelligence and we've been conducting work like this all over the summer. We've been doing it for years but it seems to be getting more at the moment. It could be that we're getting better intelligence from the general public telling us where these shops are but we're finding them all over the county. Why do you think that is? Other than getting more intelligence, why is there an increase in this sort of crime? I honestly don't know. Maybe it's got something to do with around the pricing of tobacco and people can't afford the genuine product so therefore there's a demand for this. I mean we're told that these products would normally sell for in the illegal format, maybe four or five pounds. So it might well be because people haven't got the money these days. They're resorting to this and you know if there's a market for it, people are going to fill it. It's believed the sale of illegal tobacco products is used to fund other criminal activity. It's been revealed to Enbridge MP Tom Chugernard has received more donations than anyone else in the Tory leadership race. He's declared just over £150,000 for his campaign. All four candidates gave speeches at the party conference yesterday ahead of another round of voting. Hundreds of pounds worth of fines for dropping cigarette butts in pot plants down Canterbury High Street have been overturned because they look like ashtrays. The platters were installed as part of plans to transform the busy shopping strip but they've been filled up with cigarettes and rubbish. Council agreed people can't be penalised because the pots look too much like ashtrays and they're currently working on plans for improvements. I can't marmoo's calling for changes to send provision in schools to set a publisher book about her own struggles. Lisa Lloyd from Larkfield has been documenting her experiences to thousands of followers on socials. She also heads up the send reform campaign and says it's a huge issue that needs tackling. Obviously it's come from my children and the fights that we've had to get support for them. We know we've seen reform that we've been battling with the local authorities, the schools and everything to try and get them to understand our children. I am raising two children that are autistic that don't fit into mainstream but also not severe enough for same school. We call them in between children because that's the way it feels a lot of the time and it can leave a lot of parents feeling very isolated because nobody believes you. You feel like you're battling everyone all the time and you don't really know where your children fit. I wanted about this book so that they don't feel alone like I did in the beginning. It's been 11 years and it's been a lot of that time. I've felt very isolated and I don't want anyone else to feel that way. You kind of hinted at it but the book has a fantastic title. Tell us what it is. It's called Raising the Send Betweeners which just describes our children. They are, like I said, somewhere in the middle. I found a lot of books before which were amazing books on autism and things like that. I couldn't really relate to them because my children are verbal, academic and not your stereotypical autistic children. Now I think the world is sort of understanding autism doesn't have one look and it does look very different and it is a spectrum. I think we need to talk about that more and it definitely needs to be recognised as skills more. You mentioned that you'd looked at previous books and that you couldn't quite relate to them. How do you think parents will relate to your book? Because as you say, every child is different. I mean whether they're on the spectrum or not diagnosed, every child is different. But do you hope that there'll be just some little bits within that book that parents go, do you know what? I really relate to that. I've actually, one of my friends has actually read it and she's got a child with high care name who's non-verbal and everything and I wanted to see from her perspective because obviously we live very different lives, very different worlds and I wanted to see if she could relate at all. She actually said that she can and because even though we are raising very different children, there are some things with autism that we can all relate to and I think I've tried to bring some humour into it like with my pages and there are some real open, raw, honest bits and mistakes that I've made along the way which I've made hundreds of them because we don't know what we're doing. We've thrown into this life. As far as I was concerned, before I had my children, I'd never met an autistic person in my life. We now know that's not true. Yeah, it's something that I feel people will be able to relate to and especially with things such as battling the school systems, battling the local authorities and stuff like that, I think there are unfortunately thousands and thousands of families out there are still in this situation and even battling for diagnosis. We waited four years. We've been to try and get his diagnosis from the age of two to six and it can be a lonely, lonely place when you don't know what you're dealing with and you're sort of stuck in limbo and that is why I hope this book is going to help people to realise actually you're not alone at all. Amazing, the send between us is out later this month. The first patients have been welcomed at a new hospital near Tunbridge Wells and have been to take the pressure off other sites in Kent and Medway. The Ford come hospital will be treating people who have been waiting the longest for services like gastroenterology and diagnostics. It's hoped it will see two and a half thousand patients by the end of March. A cat's been rescued after getting caught up in a plastic bag near sittingborn. She was found near communal bins at Flats on Woodbury Drive in Merston. Cats protection say they're struggling to find her owner as she isn't microchipped. The Ministry of Justice has launched a new campaign across the southeast to recruit more magistrates. They're looking for people to be placed in criminal and family courts to make sure they represent the community and deliver justice. You don't need any special knowledge or skills. Anyone aged between 17 and 74 is being encouraged to volunteer for the scheme. Now, the Kent Online podcast has been hearing from a Kent vineyard about how the poor summer has affected this year's great harvest. Bidded and vineyard near Ashford is a family estate that produces wines, ciders and apple juice, colder and wetter summers can lead to slow ripening diluted flavours and even make it easier for diseases to spread. Tom Barnes is the general manager at Bidded and he's been chatting to Lucy. I think the year as a whole, I mean, it would have been nice to see summer. I mean, we're praying for another two weeks of dry weather in October. You know, like that Indian summer that we always wear after. And I can't see that that's going to happen. If it does, that's amazing. We've got, you know, a couple of varieties that would really benefit from that. If it doesn't, it is what it is, but the whole year is just, it doesn't seem like you say that we've actually had a summer. It's been very, I've been really hot and humid or wet damp. Yeah, interesting. Yeah. So how does that affect the grapes themselves as they're growing? Yeah, so I think it's more like back to, probably back to last year has some relevance in why we've been as lucky as we have this year with our harvest. We had a massive crop from 2023. Nearly, we're probably 40% of what it was. You know, we were 130 tonnes last year. I think we'd be lucky if we, if we touch, you know, 40 to 40 to 50 this year, but it's absolutely fine. We had a lot of wine in tank last year. We made the decision at the start of the year that we were going to prune accordingly and make sure that, you know, we weren't laying as much wood down as we were before, because, you know, the vine as a plant is you can't keep taking. You have to at some point give back. So the focus this year was about on feeding the plant growing, you know, building the plants reserves back up. And that served us really well, because we've ended up with, you know, a vine that is not trying to grow too much fruit in a year that's stressful, prone to a lot of disease, and they've been able to, you know, fight some of that naturally, rather than trying to grow a huge crop, fight disease, fight the weather, fight everything, and just not getting there. So it's all pretty planning. It's pretty positive stuff, you know, and we're very happy with the grapes that we're bringing in. We've seen some higher sugar levels coming in this year, and we would have done last year. Yeah, it's pretty planning. You can't keep taking the output in back. So I think that's probably the motto of the story for the year of the weather is, you know, you get what you've given, but you have to work with the different years, depending on the levels of crops you take. Tom Scott, a positive outlook though, and says meeting the challenges of each new harvest is part of the fun. Kent Online News. There's going to be a charity art trail featuring sculptures of animals in Tundbridge Wells. Demelza have teamed up with a local author to create the figures which will go on display next summer. Schools and community groups can also get involved. Some of the sculptures will then be auctioned off to raise money. Milton's Creek Country Park in Sittingborne is set to open a new community space in shipping containers. The £130,000 upgrade comes after they received extra government funding. The two containers have been converted for the use of local groups and include plumbing and a kitchenette. Bosses in Swale have drawn up a wish list of facilities they'd like to revamp as part of efforts to deal with a potential population boom. Sheppy swimming pool in She-N-S and Swallow's leisure centre in Sittingborne could receive extensive facelifts. It's part of a strategy for the next 14 years where more than 44,000 extra people are expected to move into the area. And Sydney Christmas has been telling the KMM breakfast show Britain's Got Talent was going to be her last ever audition. The Gravesend singer was on with Gary and Chelsea. I felt so happy that people were going on this journey with me. It just goes to show that the locals are definitely behind you. It was so amazing. It's something that brings the community together. Really, a lot of people would see me and go, "Oh, seed! Go on, girl! Give it your own!" Things like that. It's really nice, you know what I mean? So I loved that. And then when I went and won it, it weren't just my win. It was like all of our win, which was like the really beautiful thing about it. Oh, see, so you're sharing the money? No comment at this current time. It's not even gay, it's sort of in an eye stuff. Oh, good sensible. That's very adult of you. That really is. That's brilliant. The name Christmas, what is it like having Christmas as a name? What are the pros and cons of it? I mean, I can see loads of pros, but is it ever been like you thought, "Oh, no, I've got it's going to be something else." I've had a lot of fun with that over the years, but then it's a nightmare that when you ring up, I suppose, imagine if you're ordering an Indian takeaway, and then you don't know who out of the family is going to pick it up. So then they go, "What's the name, Undan?" You go, "Christmas," they end up putting the phone down on you thinking you're having a laugh. I've got friends and each individual friend calls me by Sidney Easto or Sidney Halloween, like people, I'm in people's phones and Sidney's something else because they think they're fun. So you're living. Any national holiday you're like, "I'm done." Not celebrating. What does it mean to you to get an album out there in the world? I never thought in a million years that I'd get the chance to make an album. So it's unbelievable when the opportunity came, it's like, "I know what I want to do. I know exactly what message it's like." It was meant to be. I was like, "I've got so many ideas. Let's get started." But just no time to do them. This was the quickest... Well, I feel like people make albums in six months. I did this in three weeks. So it was... Wow. It was a lot. You know, we needed to get music out quickly, and obviously I needed music out for my tour, and I wanted something to perform on the Royal Variety. So it was important, you know, let's get going. So it was great. It was a ride, a stress, and all the emotions, which was amazing because it, you know what, we've got together and we made this album. I'm so proud. After winning the show, she'll be performing at this year's Royal Variety and is also doing Panto in Kent. That's all from us today. Thanks ever so much for listening. Don't forget, you can follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and threads. You can also get the details on the top stories direct to your email each morning via the briefing to sign up. Just head to kentonline.co.uk. News you can trust. This is the Kent Online Podcast. [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]
