Prime Minister Andy Burnham travelled to Stourbridge on Friday to survey the aftermath of a wildfire that gutted homes, using the visit to press the case for a faster shift to clean energy and a realistic reckoning with a changing climate.
In the town near Birmingham, smoke still curled from the roofless shells of several houses as firefighters hosed down the debris. The West Midlands Fire Service said 19 homes had been completely destroyed and 18 others damaged in the blaze, which tore through the Quarry Park Road area on Thursday – the UK's hottest day of the year so far.
Speaking after meeting crews, Burnham said he had never witnessed such destruction in Britain. "I've never seen scenes like this in Britain, where you just see a whole house gutted, smouldering," he told reporters. He described the situation as a "combustible situation" linked to climate change, adding: "We have to face up to the changing climate...there's no point denying where we are. We need to face up to it. We need more clean energy."
A tinderbox nation
The prime minister's remarks came as the government imposed a ban on selling disposable barbecue equipment, warning that the country was effectively a tinderbox. Around 37 separate blazes were reported across the UK on Friday, stretching fire services already battling wildfires on moorland and in rural areas throughout the summer.
Residents of Stourbridge were evacuated and several people were treated for smoke inhalation after the fire spread rapidly. One firefighter was hospitalised and five others suffered minor injuries, the fire service said, as crews continued to damp down hotspots in open grassland, along a railway line and in private gardens. Further north in Staffordshire, six firefighters were taken to hospital with smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion.
The West Midlands Ambulance Service said it had treated 68 people on Thursday for symptoms including smoke inhalation, with 25 requiring hospitalisation.
The West Midlands, alongside nearly three-quarters of England, is officially in drought after weeks of high temperatures and scant rainfall – conditions that have sharply increased the risk of fires. Similar dry spells have affected much of the continent, with France imposing water restrictions across nearly 70% of its territory and wildfires burning in Spain.
Deliberate fires and resource gaps
Emergency services said some of the fires around Stourbridge were started deliberately in grassland before spreading. Chief Fire Officer Simon Tuhill called it "one of the most significant incidents that West Midlands Fire Service has ever attended," blaming the rapid spread on "tinder dry" conditions and describing the devastation as "extensive."
Burnham promised to convene a summit with fire services, acknowledging that the government had not provided enough resources to deal with wildfires. He also revealed plans to commission firefighting planes of the type used in southern Europe and the United States.
Phil Garrigan, head of the National Fire Chiefs Council, told BBC Radio 4 that the service had been "under significant pressure" during a particularly difficult and busy period.
The UK has set a target of zero-carbon electricity by 2030 and aims to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But Burnham's visit underscored the urgency, as the country confronts the immediate human and material costs of a warming world.
