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In wildfire town, PM says UK must 'face up to climate change'
Officials said 19 homes were destroyed and 18 others damaged as firefighters battled drought-fueled blazes and the government banned disposable barbecue sales.
- A wildfire in Stourbridge destroyed 19 houses and damaged 18 others on Thursday, marking one of the most significant incidents the West Midlands Fire Service has ever attended.
- Chief fire officer Simon Tuhill blamed the rapid spread on "tinder dry" conditions during Thursday, the UK's hottest day of 2026, which left the region vulnerable to flames.
- The West Midlands ambulance service treated 68 people for smoke inhalation, with 25 hospitalised; three local firefighters and six others in Staffordshire required hospital treatment for exhaustion.
- British Prime Minister Andy Burnham visited the scene on Friday, describing Britain as "a tinderbox" with 37 fires nationwide and introducing a ban on disposable barbecue equipment.
- Burnham linked the "combustible situation" to climate change and pledged to commission firefighting planes, accelerating the transition to clean energy to combat increasingly frequent wildfires.
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In Stourbridge, 19 houses were completely destroyed and 18 were damaged in the fire; residents were evacuated and 54 people treated for smoke inhalation, 16 of whom were hospitalized.
·Paris, France
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"We have to deal with climate change (...) There is no point in denying the situation we are in. We have to face it," said the Labour leader on the sidelines of a meeting with firefighters in Stourbridge, the place of the fire. "I have never seen anything like it in Great Britain, where one sees a whole house evaporated, smoking again," he added after a tour in this village, where three firefighters were injured fighting the fire.
·Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
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Total News Sources10
Leaning Left2Leaning Right1Center4Last UpdatedBias Distribution57% Center
Bias Distribution
- 57% of the sources are Center
57% Center
L 29%
C 57%
14%
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