Fire crews tackle trees blaze on Aldridge parkland
A Black Country resident has spoken of her shock after seeing smoke pouring from burning trees near her home.
Fire crews from West Midlands Fire Service were called out to parkland near High Ridge Close and Gretton Crescent in Aldridge after it was reported that trees were on fire.
Deanna Ward said she and her boyfriend Connor O'Shea were sitting at their home on High Ridge Close at around 9pm on Tuesday, June 1, when they heard what sounded like a crackling noise.
The 20-year-old said: "We were sitting there watching TV when we heard a noise like crackling and thought it was raining.
"We opened the curtains and saw the trees were engulfed in smoke and you could clearly see they were on fire, so Connor rang the fire service.
"We had heard voices from the park who were shouting and screaming and it wasn't long after that the trees were on fire."
Miss Ward said the fire service had got to the fire very quickly and had eventually put the fire out, although there were some parts that kept sparking up and catching fire again.
She said nothing like it had ever happened around that area before and that she was relieved it was only the trees that had been damaged in the fire.
Shock
She said: "The damage to the tree was really bad, but there are also some houses behind the trees, so it's really lucky that the fire didn't go into their back gardens.
"I'm pretty shocked as I've never seen or witnessed anything like that before and I do hope it never happens again as it was a terrible situation to witness.
"There are a lot of houses around here and something like this could cause serious damage to houses and other parts of the neighbourhood."
A spokeswoman for West Midlands Fire Service said: "We received a call at 9.23pm about reports of a fire on parkland near Redhouse Lane in Aldridge.
"An appliance from Aldridge and an appliance from Walsall with nine firefighters in total were dispatched to the scene.
"They arrived to find two sheds, fence panels and a large group of conifer trees that were well alight and used two hose-reel jets to tackle the fire.
"The fire was put out by 10.18pm and crews passed on information to West Midlands Police to see what had happened."
West Midlands Police have been contacted for a comment.
