Scotland camping: Warning issued after gas stove explosion narrowly missed at Cairngorm bothy

The stove had not been properly screwed into the gas canister and "flared up.”

Five people had a lucky escape after a camping stove and gas canister “blazed out of control” in a bothy they were staying in.

The incident happened at the Corrour Bothy in the Cairngorms last week when flames ripped through the interior of the stone building after one visitor tried to light a stove which had not been properly screwed onto the gas canister.

Once lit, the stove flared up and was not possible to turn it off.

Corrour Bothy in Cairngorms National Park (pic: Nigel Corby/CC)

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The Mountain Bothies Association (MBA) said two of its experienced volunteers happened to be among the group visiting the shelter.

The pair managed to place a fire blanket over the stove and throw it outside using fire gloves before it "exploded in a surprisingly large fireball" a few seconds later.

The MBA said had the flaming piece of equipment not been removed quickly it would have exploded inside the bothy causing serious injuries to anyone still inside. It would have also damaged the building and surrounding property.

There was no damage to the occupants or to the bothy.

The group has issued safety advice to bothy visitors following last Wednesday's accident.

A statement on the MBA website read: “People routinely use all sorts of stoves inside a bothy, and it’s easy to be complacent about using highly flammable and often explosive substances inside a wooden building where any accident can very quickly escalate to cause serious injury in a remote location where help may be hard to obtain.

"Remember: the best way to tackle a fire is to prevent it happening in the first place.”

The MBA owns two bothies – Over Phawhope in Southern Scotland and Glenpean in the Western Highlands of Scotland – and maintains multiple others across the country in an agreement with the individual owners.

It said each are maintained and assessed annually for fire risk and all have either a fire blanket or extinguisher.

The maintenance work along with the bulk of administration is carried out by volunteers.

This is financed from the MBA’s resources, mainly membership subscriptions and donations from benefactors, some of whom wish to commemorate a relative or friend who was a hillwalker or climber.