A senior firefighter praised his crew for preventing a “major incident” after a wildfire broke out near Inverness.
Fire crews from Inverness and Beauly battled a fire on moorland near Loch Ashie, south-west of Inverness, this afternoon.
The firefighters had to react fast to the blaze due to high winds carrying the fire towards a nearby forestry plantation, which would have allowed the fire to spread far faster than it could over the moorland.
Incident commander Fraser Nixon said that his crew had been confronted by “a wall of flames” after arriving at the scene shortly after the fire was reported at 12.06pm.
Three fire appliances and a water carrier from Inverness were sent to the scene, later supported by a further crew from Beauly and an off-road support vehicle.
Firefighters brought the blaze under control by 1.47pm using main jets, hosereel jets and fire beaters.
Station manager Mr Nixon said: “We arrived to find a large and well developed wildfire which had started on gorse and had spread into the moorland.
“Our firefighters were faced with a wall of flames and the main concern was to stop it from spreading into a nearby plantation which would have been far harder to contain and could have led to a much more serious incident.
“The incident was attended by crews from Inverness station with support from a team from the retained station at Beauly and an off-road all-terrain vehicle.
“We had to take quite aggressive action and used main jets to stop the fire spreading into the tree plantation despite being battered by high winds which made it far harder to contain.
“I would like to say what a great job the firefighters have done in very challenging conditions.
“There was quite a high risk that it could have spread into the trees which could have become a far larger incident than it proved to be.”
The fire started shortly after the fire and rescue service issued a safety alert due to the high risk of wildfires due to dry conditions.
Group manager John MacDonald called on people enjoying the countryside during the summer to take extra care and to act responsibly.
He added: “We would urge communities, tourists and visitors to be aware of the increased risk of wildfires at this time and make sure they act responsibly in a countryside environment.
“Simple measures such as making sure smoking materials are always properly disposed of and only having BBQs or campfires in safe places can help protect the countryside from potentially devastating wildfires.”