A large Orkney home has been destroyed by a fire which closed a major road and forced neighbours to flee their homes.
Fire crews were called to the two-storey house in Finstown’s Main Street at 1.44pm.
Firefighters from Kirkwall and Stromness helped tackle the blaze but the home was completely destroyed.
Nobody was injured and all of the residents of the house were accounted for. Near neighbours were evacuated from their homes as a precaution.
The flames eventually destroyed rafters and joists and caused the roof of the house to collapse, with flames visible shooting out of the building.
An onlooker described the scene, saying: “It’s pretty bad. There’s going to be nothing but a shell left.”
A spokeswoman for the fire service said that two crews from Stromness and one from Kirkwall had attended the incident, using main jets to extinguish it.
She said that the fire had been “well developed” when crews arrived at the scene.
The blaze was brought under control by 4.15pm but firefighters remained at the scene for several more hours damping down remaining hot-spots and tidying up.
The A965 road past the house, which is Finstown’s Main Street, was closed while emergency services dealt with the blaze.
The route, which links Kirkwall and Stromness, was described by the onlooker as one of busiest roads on the islands.
The closure caused significant disruption to public transport and general traffic between the islands’ two largest towns.
A police spokesman said that the force had been “made aware” of the fire.