A Fife sports centre will be closed for the foreseeable future after a devastating fire on Friday night.
Bowhill Swimming Pool in Cardenden suffered extensive damage during the blaze which saw 20 firefighters tackling the flames.
No customers were in the building when fire broke out in a first floor sauna and no members of staff were injured.
The cause of the blaze is not yet known, despite fire inspection teams combing the debris over the weekend.
Fife Council, which owns the building, is expected to have a team on site today for further assessment.
A spokeswoman for Fife Sports and Leisure Trust, which operates the service on behalf of the council, said she believed the damage had been contained to one part of the building.
“It’s not burnt to the ground but it’s too early to speculate when it will reopen,” she said.
“Obviously with a fire there is the smoke and water damage that comes with it and repair work will need done,” she said.
Bowhill Swimming Pool is one of the trust’s smaller venues but is extremely popular with locals.
It is used by a swimming club twice a week and scores of youngsters have been taking advantage of a free swim offer during the school holidays.
Local councillor Mark Hood said the timing of the fire was particularly disappointing.
“At this time of year with the kids being on holiday, our promotion for free swimming is particularly popular at Bowhill,” he said.
“It’s really disappointing this has happened at this time of the year.”
He added: “We will have to wait for a survey report but we will be working with the trust to get the building partly operational as quickly as possible.”
Mr Hood said that while Bowhill was one of the region’s older centres, it was particularly well used.
Firefighters from Kirkcaldy and Lochgelly were called to the fire at the Station Road building at around 7.20pm on Friday.
Wearing breathing apparatus, they tackled the flames inside the heavily smoke-logged centre where they discovered “considerable damage”.
Picture by David Wardle