A family have been left devastated after their home was gutted in a raging blaze.
Johnny Willetts was working in his shed when the flames took hold of his cottage on Saturday evening.
And it could have been much worse if his family had been home at the house near Mossat, Aberdeenshire.
Johnny, 58, had been doing some work in his shed when he realised that his house was on fire.
He said: “I just heard the alarms going off and then saw all the smoke when I came outside.
“I tried to get in the front door of the house, but as soon as I had a look I knew there was a fire and I couldn’t go in.
“Our phones were in the house as well so I couldn’t even call the fire brigade. I had to run down the road and try and stop a car to get help.”
The blaze took complete hold of the cottage and destroyed the family’s belongings.
Johnny is thankful that wife Sheila, 55, and son Rhys, 16, were both out of the way of the danger.
He added: “Thankfully we are all fine. My wife Sheila and son Rhys were both out at the time so it was only me who was caught up in it all.
“Everything that was inside the house is gone. The flames completely gutted the place out.
“Our living room has been hit the worst, I think that’s where the fire started.
“We had family pictures in there that have all been lost. It’s such a shame.
“My family is safe though and I have to be glad for that. I don’t even want to imagine what would have happened if it had been in the middle of the night.
“We can replace everything else.”
Firefighters fought the blaze for six hours while the main road outside the cottage was shut.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “We attended at 6.08pm. There were four appliances there and an incident support vehicle and a welfare unit.
“It was all done and dusted by midnight. Originally, there were two appliances and they asked for another two.
“It came from a 999 call.”
A spokesman for Police Scotland said: “We attended just to help with a road closure. We had no further involvement.
“The building was occupied. There was no injuries and it was not suspicious.”
