A total of 54 people have been treated by paramedics, including 19 who were admitted to hospital, after wildfires broke out across the West Midlands, the region’s ambulance service said.

The blazes led to thousands of 999 calls on Thursday, the UK’s hottest day of the year, a fire chief said.

In an update on Friday morning, West Midlands Ambulance Service said it had attended “a number of serious fires” across the region “as hot and dry conditions continue”.

The fires included one on Norton Road in Stourbridge where six patients were treated, including a woman and a boy who were taken to hospital due to the effects of smoke inhalation.

The remaining four were discharged at the scene, the service added.

West Midlands Fire Service said crews were “making progress” on Friday and “tactically working across several different areas of the site” at Stourbridge.

Ed Lawrence, the local councillor for Kingswinford North and Wall Heath, said residents who were evacuated as a result of the Stourbridge fire were still unable to go home, and he urged members of the public not to fly drones in the area.

A senior fire officer previously said the fire, which forced some people to flee after it started tearing through homes, was “one of the most significant” incidents the region’s fire service had ever dealt with.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to support fire and rescue services in the region with any additional resources they need, West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker previously told Sky News.

A man who watched his childhood home go up in flames in a separate fire in Highters Heath, Birmingham, said his mother had “lost everything” – including 100 years of family photos.

Andrew Reynolds, 42, told the Press Association: “My mum’s lost everything. Absolutely everything. There’s nothing saveable.”

He described the scene on Thursday night as an “inferno” which destroyed the house his mother has lived in for 34 years.

Mr Reynolds said all his grandmother’s possessions were in the loft and will have been destroyed in the fire.

He said: “(It was) stuff that she treasured that was going to be left to me.

“No monetary value in it whatsoever, just the fact it was my nan’s and my nan was my whole world.

“It’s all gone, including 100 years’ worth of photos from the family.”

He said the fire quickly “ripped through” the houses.

Tony Aldhouse, 62, who also lives on the street, said his garden looks like a “bomb had hit it”.

The fire service said there was a full evacuation of around 50 residents at the blaze at Gorleston Road, where a number of terraced houses have been damaged by the fire.

Four ambulances attended another wildfire on Papyrus Way in Hodge Hill, where nine patients were taken to hospital with smoke inhalation and four more were discharged at the scene.

West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust chief executive Anthony Marsh said in a statement that Thursday had been an “extremely busy day for our crews”, adding he was “immensely proud” of his staff.

He said: “With the hot and dry weather we have encountered, we would ask everyone to take extra care and think about the risks before lighting fires or undertaking activities that could cause them.

“Please also use 999 wisely and only call us when you have a genuine emergency, so our crews can get to those who need us most.”

The Met Office said 38.1C was recorded at Kew Gardens in London on Thursday – the second time this year the country has seen temperatures reach 38C.

The West Midlands was subject to an amber warning for extreme heat for much of Thursday before multiple fires were reported.