Joan Cummins
Midlands Today reporter

Road blocks remain in place on Racecourse Lane in Stourbridge, where multiple houses caught fire after flames spread from nearby grassland.

Evacuated residents are asking emergency services when they can go into their homes.

Local farmer Daniel Pardoe realised "very quickly" that the fire was serious in Stourbridge as he and other farmers stepped in to help contain the blaze on Thursday.

Pardoe tells BBC Breakfast he helped contain the flames with a sprayer while six other local farmers with cultivators drove close to the fire to create firebreaks with the support of colleagues on foot.

"We used cultivators to disk in the ground, so we could chop up the grass, stubbles, whatever else we could [to] remove fuel from the fire so it couldn't spread any further," he says.

"It mostly worked," Pardoe adds. "Makes us really proud of what we have achieved."

The West Midlands farmer says the lack of rain in recent weeks means "there's no moisture in the top foot of the soil at the moment, so there's no protection from the ground against fire spreading".

Because of this, he says it's important for people to use "common sense" and "be sensible".

NFCC chair Phil Garrigan said nine firefighters had been injured over the past 48 hours while tackling major wildfires across the UK.

Nine were taken to hospital after suffering the effects of smoke inhalation, he said, "on the basis of the fact that they were putting themselves between the fire front and people’s properties… taking courageous actions".

The majority had been released following checks, he said.

West Midlands Fire Chief Simon Tuhill said one of his female officers had been taken to hospital but was now back on duty and had been keen to return to the scene.

Phil Garrigan, chair of the National Fire Chief’s Council (NFCC) has described the strain on services across the UK, which have been called out to an additional 43 new wildfires in the last 24 hours.

This is in addition to largescale incidents in the West Midlands, South Wales and Hampshire.

"There’s still 41 fire engines which aren’t necessarily deployed in their own areas because they are deployed into those three areas where there are major incidents declared,” he tells BBC Breakfast.

"We’ve had 11 major incidents declared over the last 48 hours, which means fire and rescue resources are incredibly stretched and under incredible pressure.”

The former chief officer for Merseyside said there were a number of requests for resources during the busiest 24 hour period that could not be met.

"Fire and rescue services were asking for resources, 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.

"We’ve had to provide them with those 10 fire appliances over a more extended period of time than we would have liked to."

Image source, PA Media

Residents living on the A451 Norton Road in Stourbridge have been allowed to return home following a huge fire which started on Thursday, damaging or destroying 40 properties in the area.

West Midlands Fire Service said in a post on Facebook, external the road would be open to those living there only, and asked them to park further down it and walk to their homes.

“We would love to be able to welcome all residents back immediately, but our priority now is ensuring the affected area is safe,” a spokesperson said.

Our reporter at the scene says residents are showing their passports to gain access to the cordoned off roads.

The huge blaze began at Stourbridge Golf Course on Thursday afternoon and spread quickly to nearby homes, affecting an area of 500 acres.

On Friday, the fire service said it was still working to dampen down hotspots on open grassland, along the railway embankment and in gardens.

Cordons and road closures remain in place elsewhere in the town.

The Bishop of Dudley, the Right Reverend Martin Gorick, was home in Stourbridge when the first firefighters arrived to tackle a blaze nearby.

In a matter of minutes, he tells BBC Breakfast, flames had become "as high as houses, heading towards houses where we knew people were living".

"A horrifying, horrifying situation," Gorick says. "You just hear those crackles, explosions, houses literally going up in smoke before your eyes."

The bishop says his wife ultimately grabbed "a couple of carrier bags and stuff" and they evacuated their home, helping elderly neighbours get out.

"That's the last we've seen of our homes and I've not been back. I think it's still standing but that's all I know."

Silvia Abdullah is the mother of A-level student Dominic – their house in Quarry Park Road, Stourbridge, escaped damage but some neighbours’ homes were destroyed.

Abdullah describes how the family was at home getting ready to go out to celebrate her son’s results: "The light reflecting onto our house, it wasn’t right,” she says.

“Next minute we both smelt the smoke. We could hear the emergency services coming so I went outside," she recalls, with a property further down the street already up in smoke.

“[They were] trying to spray it down to stop the spread but it was windy and the fire was progressing quite fast," Abdullah says.

The family went home and began to pack their belongings before the police arrived and started telling people to get out.

“We still don’t know when we can return home. We’ve lived on the street for 10 years. Our community is very close. I hope it will be able to regain its original state."

The Prince of Wales has thanked firefighters, emergency responders and volunteers for their response to the wildfires across the country.

In a statement William says: “Our thoughts are with everyone affected, particularly those who have lost their homes, and with those working tirelessly to protect communities, homes and the countryside.”

A student has described the moment he watched his neighbours’ houses burning down just hours after receiving his A-level results.

Dominic Abdullah says he was supposed to go out to celebrate at a local Wetherspoons with his parents when they first smelt the smoke coming from outside.

“Seeing the houses go down, seeing neighbours we know - their rooftops just burning, the whole street covered in smoke...it's really hard to describe," he tells the BBC.

Dominic, who has been accepted to study law at Aston University, says the day “could not get any more significant” emotionally.

“There is no doubt the community will come together and try our best but nothing like this has happened before,” he says.

“When something of this scale happens, it’s going to leave an impact undoubtedly.”

In an update on the current situation in Stourbridge, West Midlands Chief Fire Officer Simon Tuhill says work is continuing to bring the fire under control.

Tuhill tells BBC Breakfast the blaze was "one of the most serious I've seen as an operational firefighter in 38 years in the fire rescue service", saying he's "massively proud" of intervening fire crews.

Thirty-eight properties have been affected so far - 19 were "completely destroyed" while another 19 were damaged.

Three firefighters had to be treated by the ambulance service, he says, including one who had to be taken to hospital. Tuhill says "she's fine" now and has already returned to the scene to help colleagues who are ensuring hot spots do not break out.

On the cause of the blaze, he says an investigation is under way but it will take time to identify where the fire started due to the size of the area affected - "over 500 acres, a huge area", Tunhill adds.

He asks the public to "be responsible" and abide by a government alert warning people not to light anything that could spark a wildfire.

Amy Cole
Reporting from Stourbridge

There are several cordons still in place in Stourbridge, and police say they could well be in place for some time.

Yesterday some residents were escorted back to their properties – but only for a few minutes to collect a few possessions.

More people this weekend may well be allowed to go back to their homes just to see the extent of the damage.

Nineteen homes have been fully destroyed by the fire, the local fire service says, a further 18 suffering extensive fire damage.

This is a catastrophe on an epic scale.

Jacob Phillips
Live reporter

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Residents are waiting to find out what is left of their homes and possessions after more than 30 properties were destroyed or damaged in wildfires in the West Midlands.

Nineteen homes were destroyed and 18 damaged as flames ripped through grass and woodland in Stourbridge after a fire started at a golf course on Thursday.

Student Dominic Abdullah tells the BBC there were "roof tops just burning, the whole street covered in smoke" as he watched neighbouring homes burn down. Residents had just minutes to evacuate as the fire spread.

Police are keeping an open mind to how the fire - which West Midlands Fire Service says is one of the most significant incidents they have ever dealt with - may have started.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham described the scene as "devastating" and compared Britain to a "tinderbox" after visiting Stourbridge on Friday.

The conditions prompted a national alert to be sent to mobile phones warning of a "very high risk of wildfires nationally".

It asked people to not do anything that could spark a fire.