A Hebridean island was left without any fire fighters for more than an hour because of a staffing crisis.
Skye had no local crews between 2pm and 3.15pm on Tuesday – leaving the unit at Kyle of Lochalsh on the main land on call for the whole isle.
A fire brigade source also revealed there have been other occasions when only one or two appliances were available to respond to incidents on the island.
Skye is 72 miles long and has a resident population of about 12,000 – which rises to as many as 50,000 at the height of the tourist season.
The source said: “All five stations were off the run either through lack of crew or managers.
“This is not the first time this has happened, but more worrying is that there was no fire cover brought in from mainland stations.
“I seriously worry for the people of Skye and, more worryingly, why hasn’t the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service done anything to address this issue?
“Lives will be lost and yet the SFRS make it more difficult to recruit and retain retained firefighters in Scotland.”
The source believes a Scotland-wide recruitment system, brought in to serve the single service, is geared towards full-timers and discourages people from applying to become retained firefighters.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) said it had recently introduced a different procedure for retained crew.
The five stations on Skye are at Uig, Staffin, Dunvegan, Portree and Broadford.
The nearest mainland station to the island is Kyle, from which the travel time would be about an hour to Dunvegan, 35 to 45 minutes to Portree, about 25 minutes to Sleat and 10 to 12 minutes to Broadford.
And a second pump would take even longer to arrive.
The source said each station should have a complement of 12 crew members, but most were running on eight.
He said four, including a crew manager, were needed for each call-out, which meant there were often problems finding sufficient crew, particularly during the day.
Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP Ian Blackford was last night horrified to hear of the situation.
He said: “It is obviously completely unacceptable that anywhere is left without cover for that time.
“To get from Kyle to the north end of Skye is going to take a long time.
“It leaves me shuddering to think what would happen if there was an incident taking place on the north end of Skye.
“It is totally unacceptable and I will be taking it up with SFRS.”
Skye councillor Drew Millar said: “If all five stations were off the run at the same time, that is a horrific situation for us to be in and we need to have a discussion with the fire service to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
A spokeswoman for SFRS said last night the safety of communities across Scotland was the highest priority and it ensured that full emergency cover was available.
She said: “We were advised that the crews on the stations on the Isle of Skye were unavailable on Tuesday for just over an hour.
“However, the crew at Kyle of Lochalsh was available for cover during that time in line with our resource procedures.”
She added that a recent recruitment campaign in the area had been successful and a number of potential candidates were currently working their way through the process.
She said: “SFRS has recently introduced a new retained recruitment process, designed to make the journey to becoming a retained firefighter smoother for both candidates and their primary employers.
“It will limit the frequency and distance of travel for applicants, particularly those who live in rural areas and ensure the overall recruitment process is timely and cost effective.”