Fire crews battled tirelessly throughout the early hours of yesterday morning after a fire broke out on the west side of Lewis at the premises of a community landowner.
The Galston Estate Trust building, situated at Tom na Ba in South Galston, caught fire around 1.35am, where archives of important documents and information relating to the history of the community stored within the centre were destroyed.
The fire broke out in the roof space and soon spread through the rest of the single storey property, with strong winds hampering the efforts of the 15 firefighters who gathered to battle the flames.
The alarm was raised by a passing SSE hydro worker who had been called out to deal a power cut in the district.
Group manager for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Gavin Hammond, who was incident commander at the blaze, said: “This was a particularly challenging incident due to the location and the weather conditions.
“Upon arrival, the fire was rapidly developing and firefighters worked quickly and effectively to bring the fire under control.
“Unfortunately, the damage to the building was severe but thankfully no one was injured.
“Our thanks has to go to our firefighters, Operations Control, our partners and the community who worked alongside us to bring this incident to a safe conclusion.”
Two crews from Ness and Shawbost attended the fire; with a further two pumps from Stornoway attending later.
Three main jets, hose reel jets, ground monitors and water from nearby hydrants was utilised by firefighters to extinguish the fire, with a spokeswoman confirming a stop message was received from crews at 7.37am.
The cause of the fire is currently unknown, with investigators visiting yesterday to establish the circumstances which are believed to have led to the blaze.
Firefighters were still in attendance yesterday morning, seen to be dampening down hot spots and smouldering patches.
In a post via their twitter page, the Galson Estate Trust said: “We’re sorry to report that our office in Galson has had a serious fire overnight. Please be patient with us while we get things sorted. We’re working to get things up and running ASAP.”
Galson Estate Trust is run by a locally elected group of volunteers and employs 15 staff to oversee the 56,000 acres of land between Upper Barvas and Ness in the north of the island.
Nearly 2,000 people live on the estate, with the community taking over the land in January 2007 before the offices opened in 2011.
