Image source, PA Media

Hereford and Worcester firefighters have attended about 900 fires in the open since May, including 40 in one day last Thursday.

Jon Pryce, the chief fire officer, said this was placing "enormous stress" on them and the workload would "take its toll on any organisation".

He said his fire crews were working overtime and extra shifts while wearing protective kit which was "kind of like wearing a duvet in this weather".

The work had been "really, really physically hard," he said.

Fires continue to break out over the West Midlands.

More than 40 firefighters were sent to Grove Lane, Pontesbury, Shrewsbury to tackle a fire involving a commercial unit and several vehicles on fire.

"Assertive firefighting reduced the risk of spread to fields and other property," said Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Six crews were also called to Damson Parkway, Solihull on Sunday evening to tackle a fire in the open, said West Midlands Fire Service.

Residents were advised to avoid the area.

Josh Tranter
BBC Radio WM

I'm on Racecourse Lane in Stourbridge this morning, and apart from a few patches, it's almost like someone had taken a paintbrush and painted the landscape black.

You can see where the fire has ripped through the fields and made its way to the residential area.

There is a house to the side of the field and it has been gutted, decimated, the windows have been boarded up.

The trees that lined the side of the house are now blackened branches.

There is a car on the drive - it catch alight but the heat from the house was enough to basically melt the car into the driveway.

A number of online fundraising pages have sprung up to help the fire victims, but Dudley Council says some might not be genuine.

Last week, it said it was made aware of a number of fake pages being shared online and had offered guidance on how to spot them.

It suggested people should check web addresses to ensure financial contributions were made via legitimate platforms, and urged people to donate to platforms with a donor guarantee so that money could be refunded if something was not right.

The council says people should also consider who told them about the fundraiser.

Richard Morris, the leader of Wychavon District Council, said the change in the weather would give some respite and was "great news for everybody I think".

He described the situation in Pershore as "pretty calm" and praised everyone who had supported those affected by the fires.

"At heart we still are a community of people that really care for one another and want to support one another," he said.

Morris also said there would be meetings this week to decide what needed doing and further down the line discussions would take place to see if any lessons could be learnt.

The long dry summer has created the conditions for these fires, but there is some respite on the way, with colder weather and some rain forecast this week.

Stoke-on-Trent, Pershore and Stourbridge should all see temperatures drop to the low 20s and consistent rainfall is expected from mid week.

While this is not expected to make any immediate impact on the drought, it could reduce the chances of further wildfires.

The fire severity index - how severe a fire could be, should one start - will come down to low or moderate, according to forecasts from Natural England and the Met Office.

Phil Garrigan added that there had been investment around the national wildfire capability, "which is very much welcomed," but talks were ongoing with government.

"As we move into a new normality where the weather change is so significant then we need to look at all possible options for us in regards to dealing with these incidents.

"That includes an aerial capability, undoubtedly".

Image source, Christian Matthews

The chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council, Phil Garrigan, said further high temperatures in the country weren't being ruled out.

Appearing on BBC Breakfast, he said: "I’m not sure it's behind us, there's already conversations about particularly hot days in September, so if we move into a sixth heatwave we need to be prepared and we need to be effective and certainly that focuses in on the role of fire and rescue services."

"So we continue to be vigilant, we don't think we're through this yet, but we know that we've got a bit of respite - over the last 24 hours but moving into this week."

An online fund set up to support a family whose Worcestershire home burned down has passed £12,000.

Three homes were destroyed in Pershore town centre on Thursday as dozens of residents were evacuated from their homes and hundreds left without power.

Michael Ruff's sisters set up an online crowdfunder after the builder's property on Lancelott Court was severely damaged and all his family's belongings destroyed.

Rebecca Ruff wrote online that her brother, his partner, and three teenage sons had lost everything "in just a matter of hours".

"Thankfully, the most important thing is that all five of them made it out safely. Their three dogs and their cat also managed to escape, which we are incredibly grateful for.

"However, they now face the overwhelming reality of having to start again from scratch."

In an update, she said she did have have the words to thank everyone for their kindness, which would "never be forgotten".

The Pershore resident previously told the BBC he remembered seeing flying embers and hearing a series of explosions when the fire broke out.

"It’s just the way the wind was blowing," he said. "From tree-to-tree, it took just seconds and then they were gone."

Phil Garrigan, chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council said a change in the weather had reduced the number of wildfires over the past 72 hours, but crews were still dealing with a "significant number" across south Wales, Hampshire, Cambridgeshire as well as the West Midlands.

Image source, MOD

"They're still causing significant propblems for fire and rescue services up and down the country," he said.

An emergency alert sent out by the government on Friday was helpful, he added.

"It heightened people’s awareness of the kind of risk that was affecting firefighters.

"We were particularly stretched during that 24-hour period that preceded the emergency alert, the emergency alert to kind of inform and educate and ask for people to be careful and people to be vigilant.

"And I think we've seen a response to that."

Hereford and Worcester's Chief Fire Officer, Jon Pryce, said that unless people change everyday habits, more small sparks will turn into the kind of devastation seen across the West Midlands in the past week.

Pryce said the government's emergency alert, sent at the request of fire services was needed.

Fires that once would have burned out quietly are now racing through sheds, fences and trees, causing "significant" damage, he said.

"As someone who's been in the fire service for 34 years, what has been happening last year and this year particularly, the public in general terms need to start thinking about changing their behaviours and habits when it gets this dry and dangerous."

Pryce said since May, the service had attended 900 fires in the open, 12% of which were caused by bonfires, by people who "did not understand" what might happen.

"It was people in their 50s and 60s who thought they were doing the right thing - who thought they could control that bonfire in their garden.

Since the fires started last week, more than £125,000 has been raised for the victims through GoFundMe appeals.

The money is being donated to appeals for those affected in Stourbridge, Birmingham, Pershore and Stoke-on-Trent.

The Heart of England Community Foundation set up one of the appeals and its chief executive, Tina Costello, said it would be talking to "key agencies" in the area to see how the money could be used.

Three appeals in Stourbridge have raised more than £20,000, more than £30,000 was been raised for families who have lost their homes on Gorleston Road in Birmingham and a fundraiser for those affected by the fires in Pershore, Worcestershire, has raised more than £11,000.

People have been told the community centre in Stoke-on-Trent now has enough donations and Chandra Kanneganti said the priority was to "concentrate now on getting the donations we already have to the right families at the right time, rather than collecting more".

Any surplus goods will be raffled off to raise money for those affected and a number of online fundraising pages have also been collecting money for them.

Image source, Stoke on Trent City Council

People have been thanked for their "extraordinary" generosity towards fire victims in Stoke-on-Trent.

The Goldenhill community centre has been filled with donations of clothes, toiletries, food, household essentials, councillor Chandra Kanneganti said.

He said four families were known to have lost their homes and a number of other properties have also been affected.

He thanked the volunteers who had worked to sort it all and said a number of people had been in to collect the things they needed.

The Stourbridge and District branch of the RSPCA has issued an update on three cats, Dexter, Poppy and Millie, that had been reported missing after the fire.

Poppy has been found, Dexter has been spotted but Millie was still missing, it said.

Image source, The Stourbridge and District branch of the RSPCA

Knowing neighbours’ houses have been gutted while his survived intact feels "weird", homeowner David Price continued.

"Awful for the people concerned. Massively, massively good for me. But at the same time, it's also going to be a problem area for a while, isn't it?"

He wants answers, to "make sure it doesn't happen again".

"Unless we really see and look at what has happened, then we haven't got a chance of getting it right, or less chance of getting it right in the future," he says. "And we've got to find out what's caused it."

The homeowner feels "massively lucky" but desperate for the families who have lost everything.

"I mean, I've been in this house for 23 years," he said. "My wife died here a few years back. You know, a lot of the stuff is up the top. I would be devastated if I'd lost it."

Stourbridge homeowner David Price was on his way back from a day out at Cheddar Gorge when he heard his neighbourhood had gone up in flames.

Emergency services would not let him near his house on Brunswick Gate, but aerial images posted online reassured him it was safe.

However, three homes opposite caught light. And in his road of 17 houses, he believes five have been destroyed.

Allowed back to his property on Saturday evening, he found the only thing that had been damaged was a hanging plant.

"The wind was going the opposite way. So the wind kept this house clear, whilst the other ones over the road just went up," he says.

"I'm devastated for them, I think it's awful. It isn't something you can't just put right, is it?

"They’re going to have to be taken apart, I think, taken down and rebuilt. I mean, it's terrible."

Pritpal Boyal's described it as a "miracle" that his in-laws' home on Brunswick Gate in Stourbridge was unscathed.

Amazed his family's house is still there, he adds: "The houses you thought were going to burn down because they were right next to the fields, the fire skipped them and jumped over to the one next door."

"Just the luck of the draw," he added.

But he says he has witnessed a lack of communication from the authorities in the days since the fire broke out.

He thinks it would have been better to have one source of information, and adds residents have been distressed by "rumours".

As residents return to the scene of a devastating fire in Stourbridge one said it was "like a lottery" whether your house survived or not.

Nineteen properties across five streets have been fully destroyed with aerial images showing some homes have remained intact with others completely destroyed.

West Midlands Fire Service said they had been able to “significantly lift” cordons as households who were evacuated started returning to their homes over the weekend.