Desperate battle to halt wildfire

Firefighters desperately battled to prevent a wildfire from burning homes on Lewis yesterday.

Encroaching flames came just yards from a string of houses in the village of Leurbost, in North Lochs.

The stiff easterly wind whipped the blaze across a mile of heather in the middle of the village, seven miles outside Stornoway.

Flames quickly jumped down rocky outcrops, damaging fencing as the fire crept closer to houses and gardens.

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