A woman was taken to hospital yesterday after her Inverness-shire home caught fire.
Emergency services were called out to the blaze at Belladrum Farm, near Kiltarlity, shortly after 8am.
Crews from Inverness and Beauly donned breathing apparatus to tackle the flames at Macinnes Cottage, and extinguished them within an hour.
The resident of the property was taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.
And just hours later, crews were sent to another house fire at Drumnadrochit, where they rescued three beloved pets.
Jacqui Garson, who rents the croft house at Balbeg, Bunloit, was not at home when the fire broke out at 2pm, but praised the fire service for saving her dog and two cats, while also stopping the flames from spreading.
She said: “The fire service have done a lovely job. They got the animals out and kept damage to a minimum.”
However, a motorbike in the garage next to the house was destroyed in the blaze, which crews from Fort Augustus and Drumnadrochit had under control by 3pm.
And although the garage was also destroyed, the only visible damage to the croft was at the gutters.
At the first property, the charred remains of a sofa and electric heater could be seen lying outside.
The woman in the house was taken to Raigmore Hospital by ambulance, and neighbours declined to speak about the incident.
A spokeswoman for the fire service said: “There was a small area of damage within a lounge and the remainder of the first floor was smoke-damaged.”
A police spokeswoman said the fire was not being treated as suspicious.