Fire services stretched as residents still not home

Eleven major fires in the past 48 hours and 43 new wildfires since Friday have left services under "incredible pressure", a fire boss has said.

Phil Garrigan from the National Fire Chief's Council (NFCC) said major incidents had been declared across the UK, including in Stourbridge, Sandwell, Pershore and Stoke-on-Trent in the West Midlands, as well as in Hampshire and South Wales.

Many residents forced to flee their homes following the fires are still in the dark about when they can return.

In Stourbridge, where 38 houses have been destroyed or damaged, frustrated residents said they were not getting any answers, although it was hope they may go home later on Saturday.

West Midlands Assistant Chief Fire Officer Simon Barry told residents the fire there was under control and they were just dampening down hot spots.

He said as far as the service was concerned, homes were no longer at risk and he hoped some residents whose homes had been unaffected would be able to move back on Saturday evening.

In a recorded online briefing, Dudley Council chief executive Balvinder Hera stressed residents should not return home until explicitly told they could do so.

She said decisions to reopen roads were being taken on a street-by-street basis, with the council working closely with emergency services.

Police were keen to hear from people with information or video footage that could assist inquiries and had asked the public not to speculate on the fire's cause, she said.

An online fund, external has been set up by the council to allow people to donate to those affected.

West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service was alerted to the large grass fire near Stourbridge Golf Club in the Racecourse Lane area just before 13:30 BST on Thursday.

More than 100 firefighters fought the flames across an area of 500 acres, with hotspots remaining on Saturday.

John Moore was asked to leave his home on Osmaston Road as fire spread through grass and woodland about half a mile away.

He said he was now visiting the cordon four times a day to seek information.

"It's absolutely shocking. We can get no answers about when we can go back," he said.

The house he shares with his 86-year-old wife, who is partially bedridden, was not damaged, but he has only been permitted to visit it to pick up medication.

Moore said: "There's probably about 60 other people who are normally here by the side of me every day asking, 'can we go?'."

Simon Tuhill from West Midlands Fire Service said 19 properties had been "completely destroyed", with a further 19 damaged.

He said specialist investigators were on the scene and working with police to try to "triangulate down where the fire started".

Other residents who have lost everything gathered at a cordon at the corner of Worcester Road and Racecourse Lane, frustrated by the lack of information and not being allowed to see what had become of their homes.

One man told the BBC he had met Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Friday when he visited the region, saying Burnham had promised to personally intervene to help his family get their passports.

A woman described suffering horrific flashbacks and claimed it had taken 40 minutes for a fire engine to respond to her emergency call.

Meanwhile, A-level student Dominic Abdullah was forced to flee shortly after he had got his results on Thursday.

"I thought the day couldn't get any more big, any more significant," he said.

A national government alert sent out by the government on Friday warned people not to light anything that might spark a fire.

Garrigan said the NFCC had asked politicians to highlight the risks fire services were facing, with control room operators dealing with "thousands and thousands of calls".

He said services had been unable to immediately meet demand at points during the busiest 24-hour period from Thursday afternoon.

"They'd asked for maybe 10 additional appliances to come in nationally, and we weren't able to provide them with the full 10 in the first instance," he said.

He added firefighters were "still seeing fires occur through maybe carelessness or deliberate action".

Elsewhere in the West Midlands, in Goldenhill, Stoke-on-Trent, four homes in Sandyford were destroyed on Thursday, with other nearby properties damaged.

Marie Leese escaped the fire with just her dog and her phone, but her beloved garden on Maureen Avenue was destroyed, including a summer house built by her husband before he died.

"It was like the scenes of the Blitz, just a blazing inferno, the flames were moving so quickly," she said.

"I feel fortunate that I've been allowed back, but the house across the road still has hotspots and is destroyed."

She said she was too terrified to sleep, because the neighbouring house "keeps reigniting".

Two people have been arrested by Staffordshire Police on suspicion of arson in connection with the incident.

In Clun, Shropshire, firefighters spent the night tackling a fire on Black Hill.

And in the Peak District a fire in Totley Rail Tunnel between Totley, Sheffield, and Grindleford, has led to all lines being closed.