Around £100,000 worth of salmon has been lost after a fire broke out a a fish processer in the Outer Hebrides.
The blaze happened at a walk-in refrigerator at Salar Hebridean Smokehouse in South Uist – causing the loss of all its stock, and forcing a business to temporarily close.
Staff arrived for work on Monday to find the building at the Loch Carnan pier smoke-filled and called emergency services at 9.07am.
Two crews from Benbecula and Lochmaddy attended and firefighters wearing breathing apparatus entered the shop with a hose-reel and used a thermal imaging camera to check for the source of the fire.
It is understood that the fire had burnt itself out, but left the premises smoke-tainted and one refrigerator, with all the stock inside it, badly damaged by fire.
In addition to the interior damage caused by the fire, an estimated £100,000 worth of stock has been destroyed.
The fire spokesman said: “The fire appeared to have self-extinguished, probably through the absence of combustible material immediately around the source, which seemed to have been the fridge motor itself.”
In a social media post, the smokehouse added: “Unfortunately, we have lost all our produced stock and are now working as fast as we can to make the building safe to allow us to clear up and get back to work as soon as possible.
“The building is safe but we cannot yet use it.
“Please bear with us while we get everything organised and back on track.
“This will not stop us producing the best smoked salmon, and we will be back up and running soon in true Hebridean fashion.”