Fire crews reached a burning top floor flat in Largs just in time to save the building from a dangerous blaze.

Largs fire officer Peter Bowyer stated that the local brigade teams arrived ‘in the nick of time’ last week as the fire was in danger of spreading.

They managed to confine the blaze to just the internal flat itself.

The alarm was raised at around 7.30pm after neighbours reported hearing a loud bang from within the Boyd Street property, which was unoccupied at the time.

Mr Bowyer said: “Smoke was billowing out of the flat when we arrived - it was an electrical heater in the living room which had developed a fault.

" We took up a hosereel jet. The window had cracked, and the blaze was about to really take off so we got there in the nick of time - if we had been any later, the rest of the building, and the roof may have been in jeopardy, but it was kept all internal to the flat itself.

“All the ceiling was damaged in the property which was completely gutted. It took us around half an hour to put the blaze out. The heater appears to have been left on when a fault developed and set fire to the property.

“There was only one gentleman in the next property and he was all right.” Both Largs and Skelmorlie fire crews were in attendance for around three hours as full investigations on the property were carried out, and the road was closed during that period of time.

" A total of 11 firemen were in attendance, and an ambulance also arrived, purely as a precuationary measure.

The property had not been occupied for three or four days, according to reports.

The officer added; “We received quite a few 999 calls in relation to the fire. It was quite exhausting in the heat, and the whole squad was tired at the end of the incident.”