An elderly woman was forced to flee for her life on Wednesday as fire ripped through her picturesque Fife cottage.
Horrified neighbours in the hamlet of Kilmany watched helplessly as the blaze engulfed the 250-year-old former laundry at The Wynd.
One resident said he was woken at around 4.45am by what sounded like gunfire, only to realise it was tiles “popping” on the roof of the two-storey home.
The Courier understands that the occupant shares the B-listed property with her husband, a retired minister who was away at the time of the devastating blaze. She was last night being comforted by friends in the tight-knit community and is described as being “in total shock.”
Fife Fire and Rescue Service received several frantic 999 calls from locals and a total of five appliances from Cupar, Tayport, Auchtermuchty and St Andrews were quickly on the scene, where they spent several hours.
By around 6.20am they had managed to confine the fire to one end of the building and less than an hour later had it under control. Crews remained on the scene into the afternoon, dampening the area down and throwing a safety cordon around the property.
An investigation into the cause of the blaze is under way.
One neighbour who witnessed the fire and its aftermath told how some residents screamed as flames leapt through the roof.
“I woke up shortly before 5am and could hear what sounded like gunshots,” he said. “I also heard screaming and rushed to the window. It turns out the banging was tiles popping on the roof of the house.
“There were flames everywhere it was pretty dramatic. Eventually the roof just caved in.”
He said it looked unlikely that anything could be salvaged from the wreckage of the home.
“The place had been totally gutted,” he told The Courier. “I believe the woman was married to a former minister who had collected a lot of books which must have been destroyed.
“It is very upsetting. You could see right down into the foundations of the house afterward,” he added. “The place has been destroyed.”
The neighbour described the elderly woman as “lucky to be alive.”
“Given the enormity of the fire, I think she was lucky to get out in one piece,” he said. “I have never seen anything quite like it.”
A spokesman for Fife Fire and Rescue Service said the house was “well alight” when crews arrived on the scene.
“It is too early to say what caused the fire,” he added.
Later in the day a building control officer from Fife Council was called out to assess the safety of the building and Scottish Power officials were drafted in to isolate the power supply.
Last night the once beautiful property had been reduced to a blackened shell, its doors and windows boarded up.