Andy Burnham has warned that Britain is a “tinderbox” as he scrambled to respond to devastating wildfires across Britain.Announcing a ban on disposable barbecues, the prime minister said his message to the public was not to light an open fire “of any kind” and to dispose of cigarettes carefully amid a “combustible” situation, adding: “You are taking risks with other people’s home, with other people’s lives, if you act recklessly.”He also revealed he planned to commission firefighting planes, as used to douse flames in Europe and the US, to combat the spread of wildfires. Mr Burnham said plans were being drawn up for emergency financial support for fire services battling the spread of wildfires.Speaking on a visit to Stourbridge to see the impact of a devastating blaze, the prime minister said the country has to “face up” to the “changing climate” and needs to transition to “more clean energy”.Prime minister Andy Burnham visits Stourbridge in the West Midlands (Reuters)“I’ve never seen anything like it. I mean, I dealt with wildfires in Greater Manchester, but nothing on this scale”, he said. “I’ve never seen scenes like this in Britain, where you just see a whole house gutted, smouldering.“And I met one of the families whose house had gone up in that in that way, so you can imagine how distressing that is for for them, and you feel for them and their kids, and not to go elsewhere. You know, it’s just unbelievably devastating for people in this in this position. “So that’s why I’m here. I just wanted to show that, you know, we’re on the ground. We understand how difficult this is for everybody, and we will put in place the support to help people get back to where they should be as soon as possible.”Speaking about practical measures to tackle the blazes, Mr Burnham said: “Firstly, we have seen the military deploy 100 personnel, initially to the major incident in South Wales, and we’re very grateful to our colleagues in the Ministry of Defence for that. That support is critically needed.“We have a system of mutual aid in play at the moment, where fire and rescue services are supporting each other, but with so many incidents, it is crucial that the military support is there if fire and rescue services can’t do the same backup that they would normally be doing. So that is hugely appreciated.“The second issue is around aerial firefighting capability, the planes that people might see in other countries.“We have taken a decision to deploy nationally aerial firefighting support, so commissioned nationally.“But that obviously wasn’t available here, but it will be available elsewhere, and it would have made a difference.”A drone view of a burnt out house in the West Midlands (Reuters)Currently, the UK does not have any water-bombing aircraft, but the military is reportedly in talks to bring its Chinook helicopters, which drop water from a huge bucket suspended below the aircraft, back from Cyprus to fight wildfires in the UK. Mr Burnham also announced a temporary ban on disposable barbecues had come into force on Friday, adding: “We ask retailers to implement the ban in full until further notice.” The single-use grills “have been the cause of a number of serious wildfires across the country over the summer months”, advice published online by the government said. It added: “Disposable barbecues cannot be considered a safe product in the context of the ongoing weather and environmental conditions and must not be made available for sale either in store or online at the current time.”This year is the first year on record to see three separate days where temperatures reached the 37C threshold, as well as the first year with four days at 36C or above, and extends 2026’s record-breaking run of days above 35C.It is the fifth heatwave in a summer which has also been marked by extremely dry weather and drought for much of England and Wales.The UK is facing increasingly extreme conditions such as heatwaves, drought and wildfires fuelled by climate change. 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 on Friday. Staffordshire Fire and Rescue service said six firefighters had been taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion after battling blazes across the county on Thursday night.A firefighter checks the ground around the burnt out remains of a house following a huge blaze in Stourbridge, in the West Midlands, which forced some people to flee after it started tearing through homes (PA)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. 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.