We asked West Midlands residents how they feel about the future after a week of wildfires

The last week has seen a number of large open fires across the region, leaving a path of blackened, burnt and devastated land.

Fire crews in the West Midlands have responded to numerous calls around large fires breaking out on nature reserves, grassland and other natural areas.

This has included a huge fire on Portway Hill in Oldbury, which destroyed a large part of the natural area and which the Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust said will take many years to undo the damage caused.

Other big fires which left a trail of devastation include a large grass fire near Himley Hall, farmland in Enville being ravaged by a blaze, Beggars Bush Lane in Walsall suffering a fire, Pelsall Common being hit by a deliberate fire, as was Weddell Wynd in Bilston, and at least two reported fires on Cannock Chase, with one killing wildlife in the area and being blamed on a disposable barbecue.

There were also instances in Shropshire of big fires both this week and last week, including an Ironbridge nature reserve that was hit by wildfire and a major fire over 100 hectares of gorse and bracken near Kington.

With temperatures remaining high, a significant lack of rainfall, drought conditions in place across the region and large areas of grassland discoloured through lack of water, the risk of further wildfires remains high.

But, what do people in the region think about the increase in fires and are they concerned about future wildfires and their impact?

The Quarry in Shrewsbury is an area of natural beauty which attracts visitors from outside the town as well as locals, but has been affected by the weather like many other areas, with yellowy and dated grass visible across the park.

Among those walking through the Quarry was Mr Gray from Shrewsbury, with the 69-year-old saying that while he wasn’t too concerned about wildfires due to his locality, he understood why there was worry about them.

He said: “I live in the middle of town, but I haven't been out to the countryside out near Church Stretton, and it's absolutely dry as a bone, so anybody who's having fires is likely to be risking having a wildfire, I guess.

“A lot of it is down to people not being careful, I guess. There's not many lightning strikes these days.

“There are idiots around who do things, and lighting fires is possibly something to attract attention to themselves but, generally, I'm alright and there's plenty of people about so people will spot things quite quickly.”

One visitors to Shrewsbury was Yavuz Mutlu, 79, from Bishops Castle and he said he’d seen the wildfires in France and said thoughts of it happening near him did cross his mind.

He said: “Well, it started off with the wildfires in France as I’ve just come back from France and we were fairly close to that region.

“We'd been there before and I know some of the little towns and villages up there, and also Madrid in Spain had been there and it's just the thought of being there and the people who live there and their lives and houses are under threat.

“I’m not a scientist, but I do think it could be down to global warming and I do take their word for it and the thought does cross my mind that it could happen in the community where we live and they're all timber houses and so they could just go up in flames.”

It wasn’t just the older generation who were left concerned about wildfires and their impact as Zander Stockton, 18, from Whitchurch, was also concerned about them, saying that people needed to spread more awareness.

He said: “I think the main thing is to spread awareness, but also to spread information and education about how we can prevent the wildfires in the first place because it's all well and good saying ‘oh no, it's a good thing’, but if nobody's there to prevent it in the first place, then there's no point to bring the awareness at all.

”I love nature and I love going hikes and if these wildfires continue all over the place, then there's nowhere to appreciate nature anyway.

“Wildfires are a natural process and they will continue to be a natural process for millions of years without human intervention.

“However, there are things that we can do, like making sure that if you have any campfires, there's a ring of stone around there.

“Make sure you've always got a bucket of water but some dry soil, and sand part of the fire because it's not about the making it cool or extinguishing the flame, it's about smothering away from it.”

West Midlands Fire Service has also offered guidance around preventing wildfires, citing a recent fire near Solihill which affected a huge area.

A spokesman for West Midlands Fire Service said: “The recent warm weather has brought many people outdoors, but it has also created the perfect conditions for grass and field fires to spread rapidly.

“Last week, firefighters spent four days, including revisits, tackling a significant outdoor fire in Kenilworth, Solihull, which affected around 25 acres of land.

“The incident required a huge response, with 22 appliances attending in total, including fire engines, 4x4 brigade response vehicles and our drone team. That's a significant amount of emergency resources tied up at a single incident.

“We all have a part to play in preventing fires like this.

Please help protect our countryside and green spaces by following this advice:

• Don't use disposable or portable barbecues in parks or outdoor spaces
• Don't light campfires or any other open fires
• Be incredibly cautious around disposing of smoking materials - always make sure butts are thoroughly extinguished
• Take your litter home, especially glass bottles and anything that could start a fire
• If you spot a fire, call 999 immediately.