Woman escapes Strath Halladale house fire
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A LOCAL woman could only sit and watch as fire swept through part of her croft house last night.
Shelly Louise Hart McCallum (28) was in the shower when the blaze broke out at her year-old home at Hartshill, Dalhalvaig, Strath Halladale.
She said she could see fire where the living room’s wood-burning stove pipe connects through the roof.
“I could see flames inside the loft,” she said. “It was quite shocking.”
She managed to escape with her pet dogs and cat before running next door to her parents’ house.
The emergency services were called but there was little the family could do but watch as fire took hold of the insulation in the roof and spread.
Shelly watched the blaze from her car until the emergency services came on the scene.
“I drove the car to the bottom of the drive and sat there until the fire brigade arrived,” she said. “I just watched the house go up – it was all I could do. It was hard to watch considering I had only been in it for about a year.”
Fire crews from Thurso and Bettyhill arrived just after 7.40pm along with the police and ambulance services.
Fortunately Shelly was okay, as were her pets. However, 40 per cent of her roof was destroyed with the rest of the property suffering smoke and water damage.
*For more on this story check out tomorrow’s Caithness Courier.
