In town hit by wildfire, PM says UK must 'face up to climate change'

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Friday the UK has to face up to the changing climate and accelerate its move to clean energy as he visited a central town where a wildfire has gutted homes.

In the town of Stourbridge near the UK's second largest city of Birmingham, smoke rose from smouldering ruins of several roofless houses as firefighters sprayed water on the wreckage Friday, an AFP photographer saw.

The West Midlands Fire Service said 19 houses were completely destroyed and 18 other damaged in the town.

Meeting firefighters in the town after viewing the scene, Burnham sounded shocked as he said the "combustible situation" was related to climate change and showed the need for a more rapid transition to clean energy.

"I've never seen scenes like this in Britain, where you just see a whole house gutted, smouldering," he said,

"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," he stressed.

Describing Britain as "a tinderbox" with 37 fires currently smouldering around the country, the prime minister warned against lighting any fires outdoors, as the government introduced a ban on selling disposable barbecue equipment.

Residents of Stourbridge were evacuated and people treated for smoke inhalation after the fire spread on Thursday, the UK's hottest day of the year so far.

Three firefighters were hospitalised after fighting the blaze in the town, where the fire service said Friday morning it was still extinguishing "hotspots" in open grassland, along a railway and in gardens.

As dry conditions sparked multiple wildfires, six other firefighters farther north in the region, in Staffordshire, were taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion, the local fire service said.

The ambulance service in the West Midlands region, including Stourbridge and Staffordshire, said that on Thursday it had treated 68 people with symptoms such as smoke inhalation, 25 of whom were hospitalised.

The West Midlands region, alongside nearly three-quarters of England, is in drought after weeks of high temperatures and scant rainfall, increasing the risk of fires.

At least six properties in Stourbridge were affected by the fires, emergency services said, adding that some of the blazes were set deliberately in grasslands before spreading.

"This has been one of the most significant incidents that West Midlands Fire Service has ever attended," chief fire officer Simon Tuhill told a press conference late Thursday.

He blamed the rapid spread on "tinder dry" conditions and said the "devastation is extensive".

So far this summer, firefighters have mainly battled wildfires in rural areas and moorland across the country.

Burnham promised to convene a summit with fire services, acknowledging the government had not supplied enough resources to deal with such incidents.

And he revealed plans to commission firefighting planes, of the types used to douse flames in Europe and the United States.

"It's been a particularly difficult, busy period for the fire and rescue service, where we've been under significant pressure," the head of the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), Phil Garrigan, told BBC Radio 4 on Friday.

"Firefighters have been on the front line of climate change for a number of years. They're doing their absolute best to protect communities and properties," he said.

Fire chiefs warned investment was falling short and urged the government to boost support to keep up with the growing risks of wildfires.

"The risk is growing faster than our collective capacity to respond. Climate change, prolonged periods of extreme heat and changing land use are creating more frequent, larger and more complex wildfires," the NFCC said.