A woman jumped from her bedroom window to escape a fire ripping through her Fife home at the weekend.
Connie Burns, 47, escaped serious injury in the blaze in the early hours of Saturday morning in Cardenden. However, she was rushed to the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, suffering from smoke inhalation and a minor leg injury.
Neighbours in Carden Castle Park tried in vain to break down Connie’s door, then persuaded her to jump from the upstairs window.
No one else was home at the time, although it is understood that some of Connie’s pets, two dogs, a cat and kittens, perished in the burning house.
A neighbour returning from a night out raised the alarm at around 1.45am after seeing smoke and hearing the grandmother screaming. Another neighbour, woken by the sound of banging, said: “It was devastating. It was absolute chaos.
“I heard people trying to get in, then telling her she was going to have to jump and trying to make sure there was no one else in the house.
“Then I saw her on the ground. There were quite a few of us out trying to help.”
Neighbours tried to catch Connie but it is understood she struck the living-room window ledge, breaking her fall. One resident managed to break a rear window to provide an escape route for the animals.
When firefighters arrived moments later they confirmed that no one else was in the house. Three appliances from Lochgelly and Kirkcaldy tackled the blaze, which took crews more than seven hours to fully extinguish.
Fire and rescue watch manager Owen Cameron, based at Lochgelly, said the inside of the semi-detached house was destroyed but the building had been declared structurally sound.
Police have confirmed that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the blaze.