Family’s eight hours of terror just 200ft from raging inferno
A TERRIFIED family spent eight hours sheltering in their home just feet from a raging wildfire.
Flames spread across the hills above Loch Ness on Wednesday, threatening properties including a B&B owned by Marsaila Munro.
Mrs Munro, her husband Ian, their three children and six guests sheltered in the building from the flames, which came within 200ft of their home, burning fence posts around their garden. Their horse Skye made a frantic bid to escape.
Luckily for the Munros and their guests, firefighters extinguished the flames before it engulfed their home, Ach-na-Sishe.
The fire erupted on the hillside near Dores, Inverness-shire, at around 7.30pm on Wednesday and it took 50 firefighters eight hours to bring it under control. No one was injured in the blaze.
An Iron Age fort, which was last used by the Jacobites as a lookout post during Bonnie Prince Charlie’s 1745 rebellion, was engulfed in the flames.
Mrs Munro, 38, said: ‘The fire was huge, stretching for around a mile-and-a-half. We were watching it coming towards us.
‘It swirled round the fort and then seemed to change direction and head for us. It was like Smaug the fearsome dragon from The Hobbit. Fortunately Robbie MacDougall, the fire chief, who we know because he has stayed here, came to reassure us they had the fire under control.’
Mrs Munro told her daughters Arwen, 13, and Zarah, ten, to ‘get your things together’ as she attended to 16-month-old baby William.
She said: ‘We had the photo album, the phones in the pockets and of course the baby bag. We were ready for the off.
‘It was very alarming but we tried to keep calm and composed for the children’s sake and for the six guests.’
The young family feared they might lose their five-bedroomed home, which they built seven years ago and operate as a bed and breakfast
Speaking about their six guests, Mrs Munro added: ‘They will never forget their stay here that’s for sure but we had been ready to evacuate.
‘They took it remarkably well and were very calm throughout.’
A Scottish Fire and Rescue spokesman said: ‘The blaze covered an area of around one-and-a-half miles.
‘Firefighters worked to prevent the fire spreading into a nearby plantation and adjacent homes. There were no casualties and crews left the scene at 3.15am on Thursday.’