Multiple fires have been burning across the West Midlands, forcing some people to flee after flames ripped through their homes on what has become the hottest day of the year in the UK. The West Midlands Fire Service said it was facing extreme levels of demand as it worked to contain a string of separate blazes. The scale of the response underlined how a spell of intense heat and dry conditions has left large parts of the country vulnerable to fast moving fires.
Much of the concern centred on the market town of Stourbridge, where a child and three firefighters were taken to hospital while crews tackled the flames. The fires came as temperatures peaked at more than 38 degrees Celsius, with an amber extreme heat warning expanded to run until the end of the day. An amber heat health alert was also in place for the whole of England until 9pm the following day, meaning some people, especially the vulnerable, could be at risk.
The blaze in Stourbridge was initially described as an extensive grass fire near Stourbridge golf course, which broke out just before half past one in the afternoon. About one hundred firefighters were sent to tackle it, with flames spreading across roads in some places as the fire took hold. The fire service said the blaze appeared to have several points of origin, adding to the difficulty of bringing it under control in the searing heat.
Residents in the area were left terrified for their homes as the flames drew closer, and people had to be evacuated from nearby properties. One resident described a desperate and ultimately futile attempt to hold the fire back, saying he went out with a hose pipe to try to damp the fence down but that it made no difference. He recalled how quickly the flames rose, reaching ten or twelve feet high and towering above him, until he was overpowered and forced to retreat indoors.
The West Midlands was not the only area hit. In Sandiford, in Stoke on Trent, four homes were destroyed by fire, a stark illustration of the damage the conditions have been able to inflict. Broadcasters noted that these sorts of incidents had become an increasingly common sight during a hot and dry summer, as grass and scrub ignited easily and blazes spread rapidly through built up and rural areas alike.
Further east, in Norfolk, a major incident was declared by the fire service as it dealt with its own emergencies. Officials described the period as one of the busiest on record, if not the busiest, with the summer amounting to a months long stretch of exceptionally high call volumes. The picture pointed to fire services across several regions being stretched at the same time, all while contending with the same punishing heat.
Firefighters were not the only emergency staff struggling in the conditions. England's accident and emergency departments were said to be experiencing their busiest period ever, with the record breaking heat identified as a key part of the problem. At the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, the city's biggest hospital, staff and patients were suffering, and there was a period in the outpatient clinics when it became so hot that the air conditioning simply could not keep up.