Rayner visits 'horrendous' fire scenes

The housing secretary Angela Rayner has described as "absolutely horrendous" the burnt-out remains of homes gutted by fire last week, following her visit to the West Midlands on Monday.

She walked among the shells of houses on Quarry Park Road in Stourbridge, Dudley, where flames took hold on Thursday afternoon, destroying 19 homes across five streets in total.

Residents who fled their properties to escape the flames began to return home on Sunday.

"The community have been exceptional, looking out for each other," Rayner said, as more human stories of personal loss and hearbreak emerged.

"The emergency services, the police, the fire, the ambulance service, the local authority, the local MP and the community have come together to really support each other.

"But it is devastating to see the level of damage and the emotional turmoil of losing everything, and that's what these families have gone through."

The fire, which spread over about 500 acres, would take some time to investigate because of its size, said Simon Tuhill, chief fire officer for West Midlands Fire Service.

"Fires across the West Midlands have been occurring over the past month or so due to the dry conditions, and most of those fires can be attributed to human causes," he said.

"Not all of them have been started deliberately, by any means, but some have."

Rayner said there was a "pattern" with wildfires and climate.

"We have introduced £100 million more equipment and we've got specialist fire crews now that look at wildfires, and they have been pushed by what's happened," she said.

"We'll be making sure that we come together and we design a fire service that is able to respond to the challenges that we face.

"But it's clear that these challenges are becoming more frequent."

Eleven year-old Thea spotted the Stourbridge fire in the fields near her home.

Her mum Sarah told the BBC: "It was horrendous, absolutely horrendous to see the fire coming in from the side and there were other fires sparking up, because it was windy that day.

"The embers were carried and started fires in different areas."

The family's home escaped damage, but Sarah said it was "heart-breaking" to see the impact it had on others.

"I feel so sorry for everyone who has lost their homes," she said.

Three fundraising appeals in Stourbridge have raised more than £20,000 for those affected, something which Sarah said made her "proud to be a Stourbridge person".

She said residents would recover from the disaster because the community was "strong and resilient".

"We'll all pull together," she added.

Tuhill said the fire service had been able to "significantly lift" cordons in Stourbridge on Monday, and people had been returning to their homes.

Specialist fire investigations teams were looking into the cause of the blaze, he added.

Officers were working closely with police forensic teams on the "complex" investigation, he said.

Stourbridge resident Chloe was working from home when her neighbour texted her, asking whether she could smell smoke.

"Literally within ten minutes smoke was billowing over us," she recalled on Monday.

"I looked over the road and children were running over to us.

"Their mum was trying to put out the fire with a hosepipe, and literally within 20 minutes flames had completely engulfed the back of their house and we ran.

"We got them out and they're alive, that's all that matters."

Amid the dry, hot weather, the Met Office has said some areas of the UK will have the "first meaningful rain in a long time" this week.

Although there will be some rain on Monday, the heaviest is due to come on Thursday, bringing the "chance of surface flooding" in places.

By Friday, conditions are expected to turn drier through the weekend, but more rain is forecast next week.

Meanwhile, residents in Warstock, Birmingham, are also coming to terms with the effect of a large fire, which also broke out on Thursday bringing further devastation.

The blaze there saw six properties completely destroyed, with a further 13 affected.

Tony Aldhouse, who lost his garden in the blaze, said: "It's like a bomb's dropped there."

The fire "took hold in minutes", he added, and affected more than 20 other gardens.

"It's just black ash everywhere."

Carol Squires lost her childhood home - the house where her 70-year-old father was still living at the time.

"The roof has completely gone as has the first floor, it's horrible to see," she said.

"It's the memories of my mum, his wife, who died last year that he's struggling to deal with.

"She used to collect stuff, she loved Elvis, she loved Daniel O'Donnell, it's all gone."

More than £30,000 has been raised for families who have lost their homes on Gorleston Road in Warstock, and a community group helping residents said it had been "overwhelmed" with donations.

Jen Compton from Solihull Lodge Community Centre - one road away from where fires broke out - said residents still remained "shellshocked" after homes were destroyed.

"A lot of the people that we spoke to still can't process what has happened," she said.

"You just kind of ask them if they need any items of donations, and their automatic response is 'no, no, I've got stuff', and their friends have to remind them that actually, unfortunately, it's unsalvageable."

Samantha Nash from the centre added that affected residents would be placed in temporary accommodation "so we've got everything ready for them, just to start them off, just to help them".

"We've had to pause donations because we have no space," she added.

"We walked up and took loads of toiletries, food and water to Gorleson Road and we were speaking to the families that were stood there still watching their houses in bits, and it was devastating.

"You walk away, you cry," she added. "You can't help but feel so sorry for these families."

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