An elderly woman has died following a house fire in the Western Isles.
The casualty – said to be in her 80s – was found in the smoke-filled kitchen of her croft home in the village of Garrynamonie at the southern end of South Uist.
Three crews from Lochboisdale and Benbecula were summoned to the blaze when the alarm was raised just after 11.05am yesterday morning.
The Lochboisdale crew was first on the scene .
The smoke was so thick firemen had to use breathing sets to get inside.
They removed the woman from the house but she had died.
An islander said the blaze may have started from a fridge-freezer catching fire.
Police were yesterday trying to contact her next of kin.
The fire service finally left the scene just before 5pm.
It is understood she had no immediate family but a number of cousins live in the district.
The woman has been named locally as Morag Ann Macdonald who lived alone at the address.
She previously worked in the school canteen in Daliburgh primary school which covers the south end district of the island.
Uist councillor Donnie Steele said the news of her death is a “devastating shock to the community.”
Mr Steele added: “She was a nice and cheerful lady, a happy-go-lucky woman.”