Devastation remains a month on from West Midlands summer fires

Last month, Kim Yeomans watched her daughter Kerry’s house burn down in Birmingham, leaving nothing behind.

“She was just absolutely broken, devastated. We had to hold her back. She was screaming, crying,” Kim said.

While their two dogs escaped, the family had been on their way to a caravan holiday in Skegness at the time, meaning they could not rescue any of their belongings.

They raced back and had to watch the house burn to the ground.

“It was just horrendous and, as a mother, you don’t want to see that for your child. Not for anybody,” she said.

Kerry’s house on Hillmeads Road in King’s Norton was one of about a dozen that burned down in Birmingham on 13 August.

Dozens more houses were consumed by fire in the West Midlands on the hottest day of the year, during the UK’s hottest summer on record.

In Stourbridge, 19 homes were lost, alongside four in Stoke-on-Trent, three in Pershore, Worcestershire, and three in Willenhall, near Wolverhampton.

In the hours after the blazes started, fire crews across the region admitted they were stretched, with fires also breaking out in Shropshire and Warwickshire.

London Fire Brigade said it answered 754 calls in support of West Midlands Fire Service and Staffordshire Fire Service as part of national arrangements.