A mum had just seconds to flee the Stourbridge wildfire before it swallowed her family’s ‘forever home’.
Terrifying doorbell footage shows Rose-Anne Vinten running through her garden, followed closely by flames from the inferno which completely destroyed 19 homes on Thursday.
Rose-Anne and husband Richard only moved in five months before their home was gutted.
Speaking to ITV News, the mum-of-two said: ‘It was really scary to be honest, it felt like I was in a movie.
‘I was really scared but I knew at the same time I needed to be brave for my kids, because my daughter was really worried.
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‘When I went over to next door and saw them just standing there at the window, looking and they could see that their house was on fire, so I had to just hold it all in.’
West Midlands Fire Service chief fire officer Simon Tuhill said firefighters were called to 10 ‘significant’ blazes across the region on Thursday, in scenes some described as ‘apocalyptic’.
The fire chief said on top of the fire in Stourbridge, the fire control 999 centre took more than 1,100 calls on Thursday – adding that the fire service ‘mobilised to hundreds and hundreds of incidents’.
Staffordshire Fire and Rescue service later said six firefighters had been taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion after battling blazes across the county.
Across the West Midlands, a total of 54 people have been treated by paramedics, including 19 who were admitted to hospital, following the fire outbreaks, West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) said.
In Stourbridge, the Prime Minister said during a visit to the town on Friday that he had ‘never seen scenes like this in Britain, where you just see a whole house gutted, smouldering’.
Andy Burnham revealed he had called in the military, announced a ban on disposable barbecues and said plans were being drawn up for emergency financial support for fire services battling the spread of wildfires across the country.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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