Stourbridge community rallies around fire victims as wildfire devastation unfolds

A Stourbridge community volunteer has described the heart-breaking scenes faced by residents who lost their homes as the town rallies to support those affected by the huge blaze.

Vi Wood, from Leslie’s Care Packages, has been working to help families affected by the fire, providing essential items and raising money to replace belongings lost in the blaze.

Her efforts have continued into the night and early morning, as residents forced from their homes were given temporary accommodation and Stourbridge Town Hall was used as a refuge. The fire, which broke out on Thursday afternoon, August 13, affected six homes and spread across an estimated 40 acres of land, including woodland. Around 100 firefighters were sent to tackle the blaze.

Vi said: “It's a voluntary group that relies on donations from people and businesses in the local community. We provide, food, clothing, toiletries and small electric items, and yesterday I set up a fundraising page that so far has raised over £1,200 since yesterday evening.

“That will then be turned into vouchers for food, clothing and other items that people have lost.

“I'm not sure yet how many houses have been burnt down, I think six definitely have, and it is such a sad thing for people who work all their lives just for it to go within seconds.

“I had a request to help an elderly couple in Birmingham yesterday too. They both suffer with dementia and they lost everything. They came out of their home with just the clothes that they were wearing, not even in their shoes or slippers, so I'm raising money for them as well.”

The scale of the fire has been described by West Midlands Fire Service chief fire officer Simon Tuhill as “one of the most significant” incidents the service has ever dealt with, with crews facing extreme levels of demand across the region. Firefighters were still making progress on Friday morning and working across several areas of the site.

Vi has also been at the heart of the immediate response, visiting Stourbridge Town Hall to see whether she could provide food and toiletries to those who had been evacuated.

She said: “I've been to Stourbridge Town Hall to see if I could help there with food and toiletries but they were being well looked after, so I just stayed for a while and spoke with people to see if they were happy staying there if they wanted to come here (OSH).

“At about 10pm I came here to help make people some drinks and wish everybody goodnight, and then I went home at about 12.30am. I was back here just after 8am to help with making breakfast and receiving the donations. It's just a passion of mine to help people.

“I only had an hour of sleep because when I got home my adrenaline was so high and I couldn't stop thinking about the poor people who had lost their homes while I was in mine. It's just so sad, so heart-breaking.”

The fire also left people injured, with a child and three firefighters taken to hospital and six further people treated for smoke inhalation, according to reports.

Despite the devastation, Vi said the response from local residents and businesses had shown the strength of the community.

“In bad times you absolutely see the best of people, and Stourbridge is a wonderful community. I'm glad to be a part of it.”