Firefighters battled in “sweltering conditions” to get a major blaze on a Sutherland hillside under control yesterday.
Crews from 11 stations across the north worked in shifts to stop the wildfire from spreading on Tuesday night and throughout yesterday.
Two fires on opposite sides of a hill near Tongue had covered a total area of about 2.7sq miles on Tuesday, with one stretching from Ben Blandy to Modary.
By 11am yesterday it had been reduced to 0.8sq miles, and was under control by late afternoon.
One of the residents caught up in the fire issued a heartfelt “thank-you” to the firemen who saved his home.
Derrick Madden’s croft at 168 Scullomie was one of the closest homes to the inferno.
“If it wasn’t for the firemen, we could have lost our home. They did a great job,” said the software developer.
“It was eerie watching it and seeing on the news the devastation of Fort McMurray in Canada.
“We had a very sleepless night and were ready to evacuate if the order came from the firemen.”
Firefighters immediately set out a plan to avert any risk to property and power lines.
They divided the blaze into four sections and let two to burn out, while being closely monitored, and tackled the other two by spraying the area with water and using beaters to quell the flames.
More than 20 firefighters, five appliances, and a command unit remained at the scene yesterday afternoon.
A spokesman for the service said it had been working with local landowners to make use of their all terrain vehicles as part of efforts to control the blaze.
He said: “Thanks to the hard-working effort of our crews in sweltering conditions, the fire is now down to an area of around two square kilometres with firefighters working towards each other on two separate sectors. A further two sectors are on a watching brief.”
The weather at the time of the fire was dry and hot, with temperatures still at about 20C in parts of the Highlands late into Tuesday evening.
The spokesman said: “We’ve been seeing a lot of them around the country in the last few days, with the majority caused by the weather, although no specific cause has been identified at this time.”
He added that although the blaze was under control the service expected to have firefighters remaining at the site for a “considerable time”.
Meanwhile, fire service personnel tackled a smaller wildfire at Laggan yesterday afternoon.
