Hundreds of holidaymakers fled an upmarket Highland hotel in the middle of the night after a smouldering wall beam triggered its fire alarms.
The 426 guests – including about 100 children – hurriedly grabbed clothes to keep them warm as they were evacuated from the Hilton Coylumbridge near Aviemore.
No one was injured in the incident – and guests praised staff at the hotel for the way they handled the drama.
It took a six-hour search by firefighters to pinpoint what had activated the building’s automatic alarms.
They had been set off by smoke coming from the kitchen area and spreading to rooms on all three floors.
The problem was finally traced to a wooden baton inside a wall above an oven.
Incident commander, station manager Fraser Nixon, said the beam had “probably been smouldering for a while”.
Among the evacuated guests were the Philip family from Banff – including children Maisie, 7, Lillieboe, 4, and Tommy, 2.
Father Kevin said: “It’s been a very long night. The fire alarm went off about 3am and we all went down into the hall and then outside.
“It was a long one for the kids as well but the hotel staff were really good keeping us going with coffee and juice.
“It’s not something you want to happen every night of a holiday though.”
Guests were first sent out to the car park for about an hour but were later allowed to take shelter in an unaffected lobby of the hotel.
The Murray and Blair families from Aberdeen were at the hotel for the school holidays.
Cammy Murray said: “I heard the alarm bleep twice before there was a continuous one which got us all out of bed.
“Everybody was just milling about wearing whatever they could grab lying about in their dark rooms. It was all a bit chaotic.
“It’s not ideal but it’s just one of those things that happen I suppose. We’re not going to forget it anyway.”
Fire crews from Aviemore and Kingussie went to the hotel after the alarm was raised around 3am yesterday and used thermal imaging equipment to try to identify where the smoke was coming from.
The search involved checking all roof and wall voids.
The fire had not spread any further than the timber beam because of the insulation around it, but the smoke had drifted through the building.
Mr Nixon praised the professionalism of his crews and hotel staff in managing the incident.
He said: “It took a number of hours to carry out our investigations so I’d like to thank the hotel guests for their patience.
“There was a strong smell of smoke but it wasn’t immediately obvious where it was coming from so we had to carry out a thorough search to ascertain the cause of the alarm.
“The main concern was obviously for the welfare of residents and we worked with hotel staff to try and ensure that there was as little inconvenience as possible and everyone played their part in that.
“A joint investigation between the hotel and fire service will be carried out into the cause of the incident.”
Hilton’s Scottish area manager, Stewart Lorimer, who drove north from Perth after being told about the incident, said guests would not be charged for the night.
He said: “We started a full evacuation after our automated fire alarm was triggered just after 3am.
“We had to send the guests outside but we were later able to bring them into the lobby and provide them comforts.
“Fortunately nobody was hurt. We will not be charging for the night’s stay or for breakfast by way of apology for the inconvenience.”