The ‘apocalyptic’ aftermath of the wildfire in Stourbridge has been revealed after the blaze left luxury properties gutted.
Workmen were seen clearing rubble from the luxury homes along Racecourse Lane this morning after Thursday’s inferno left 37 houses either destroyed or damaged.
Key roads around the street and Stourbridge Golf Club remain closed today as West Midlands Police continues its investigation.
Nineteen homes in the area, where houses average £1million, were destroyed, while 18 were left with fire damage, West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS) confirmed.
Devastating photos taken this morning show homes reduced to hollow shells, with their roofs and windows completely obliterated.
Network Rail workers were spotted examining the tracks after the fire scorched the railway embankments.
WMFS has now started to allow evacuated residents back into their homes for the first time since the blaze.
Neighbour Neil Perry raced back from work 20 miles away to help farmers stop the fire from spreading. ‘I feel sorry for the people who have lost their homes. The houses were literally exploding while we were in the fields – it was apocalyptic,’ he said.
The scene of utter devastation following a fire that completely gutted luxury properties in Stourbridge, West Midlands
Trees are left scorched beside homes that were completely destroyed in the inferno
A home is seen completely gutted after the blaze on Thursday, with no roof or windows
A photo taken from a distance further captures the devastation caused by the fire
‘I was in the thick of it on Thursday afternoon with the farmers trying to stop. It came over the field on Thursday and it was very quick.
‘We were throwing water along the hedgerow to stop it.
‘We could’ve lost our houses and the rest of the road, so we were quite lucky it didn’t get the whole of Worcester Road.
‘The quick-thinking and the bravery of people made all the difference.
‘I raced back from work, I belted back because you could see the smoke 20 miles away.
‘A lot of people did a lot of good – I knew a lady who saved horses. A lot of people did things they shouldn’t be doing because of the fire, there were a lot of heroes.’
Another neighbour said: ‘When I came across the road there was a fire in the field and that fire went right across the field, and this is where the houses caught fire.
‘There was the other fire along Racecourse Lane. They reckon it must be about 500 acres that it’s affected.
‘It was horrible. How quickly the fire was moving was horrendous. It was really fast the way it moved across the field.
‘The farmer was trying to do his best to stop it, but he hadn’t stopped it and it reached the trees by the houses.’
Andrew Jones, another local, said he was in his garden on Thursday when he started to smell smoke, initially thinking someone had lit a bonfire.
‘Then we could hear sirens and then we got ash in our garden and the smoke got quite heavy,’ he said.
Network Rail workers at the scene after the horrifying blaze on Thursday
The scene of devastation after the fire that gutted luxury properties in Stourbridge this week
Network Rail workers at the scene after the fire in the West Midlands on Thursday
Some properties were left with no roof after being completely destroyed in the fire
Police at the scene after 37 homes were left either obliterated or damaged
‘We saw it on Facebook after.
‘We walk along here regularly, these are probably £1.5million houses.
‘But it doesn’t matter the value of the houses, they’ve got to live in a hotel for six months, lost all their possessions and family stuff. It’s horrible.’
Barry Guest, 83, has lived in his home on Racecourse Lane for 32 years and said the fire damaged his rear garden and firefighters had to smash down his electric gates and side door.
‘The police came and we were sat in our lounge and we weren’t aware of anything that was happening,’ he said.
‘We went outside and looked out the back and we saw the smoke. It moved across, right across Norton Road. As soon as it got by the railway embankment it came down here.
‘We watched the smoke and the flames race across the field, and then when it reached the railway line and the embankment took light, then we knew we had a problem.
‘Then it leapt from one side of the embankment to the other.
‘Our back garden goes down to the railway embankment. It destroyed the conifer trees all along the border.
‘By the time it reached our bungalow, the only thing it managed to do was buckle the drainage pipe.
‘By the time it reached us the fire brigade had reached it in time. But getting to it they had to dismantle the electric gates, break those.
‘If they hadn’t done that we’d have lost it.
‘When the fire chief came down the road to tell us, he said “the good news is, I’ve saved your property” and my wife burst into tears.
‘We were very lucky. It is like a warzone here. I’ve never seen anything quite as frightening as that.’
