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Andy Burnham called in the military to battle Britain's wildfires yesterday as he warned the crisis is 'far from over'.

The Prime Minister banned disposable barbecues in 'tinderbox Britain' amid fears that school-leavers celebrating their A-level results may have accidentally sparked a number of blazes.

With 37 fires still raging across the nation last night – four of them declared major incidents – residents are counting the cost after whole streets went up in flames on the hottest day of the year on Thursday.

Investigators are looking at whether an inferno around Quarry Park Road and Brunswick Gate, a millionaires' row in the market town of Stourbridge where 19 homes were 'destroyed', was caused by a barbecue.

Stunned residents yesterday surveyed the charred remains of their £1million homes.

Elsewhere in the West Midlands, two people were arrested on suspicion of arson after fire swept through four houses in Stoke-on-Trent.

With towns across Britain at increasing risk of 'firewaves' – simultaneous multiple blazes in urban areas – Mr Burnham urged: 'These problems are far from over. We are going into a difficult weekend. Please just think about the situation we are in. Britain is a tinderbox right now. Setting a fire in any outdoor setting, of any kind, is a risk to other people's homes, to other people's lives. Please don't do it.'

Fire chiefs are investigating whether the chaos is linked to a craze by students celebrating A-levels. Some youngsters have filmed themselves burning old notebooks and coursework.

Aerial view of fire damaged properties on Quarry Park Road in Stourbridge, West Midlands

Residents carry their belongings following a huge blaze in Stourbridge

West Midlands Fire Service acknowledged the rumours but said it had found no direct evidence. A spokesman said: 'We would not want to blame young people or any particular groups of people but our investigations are at an early stage.'

Visiting the devastation in Stourbridge, the Prime Minister told the BBC: 'It's quite an eerie sight to walk past a home that was a family hub yesterday and is now completely gutted, smouldering. You can't begin to imagine what that feels like.'

Mr Burnham said 100 military personnel had been deployed to a blaze in South Wales and announced plans to commission firefighting planes, as used to douse flames in Europe and the US, to help combat the spread of wildfires.

He also said the recent Cobra emergency meeting in Whitehall had been warned the UK could face a wet autumn and winter, 'so after fire could come floods'.

The PM said retailers had been told to stop selling disposable barbecues as they were a 'risk to the public', adding: 'I can't say all of [the fires] are down to disposable barbecues, but it's probable some of them have been caused in that way.'

In the West Midlands, a Labour MP said up to 30 properties had been destroyed after fires spread through dry grass and woodland next to housing. West Midlands Fire Service's chief fire officer Simon Tuhill said 19 houses had been destroyed and 18 damaged. Drone footage from smoke-filled skies over Stourbridge showed how the blaze had threatened to engulf even more properties. Mr Burnham said: 'It could have been so much worse. The emergency services have done an incredibly impressive job in difficult circumstances.' He also promised fire services more funding.

About 100 firefighters tackled an inferno near Stourbridge Golf Course that scorched 40 acres of land. Golfers fled in their carts and residents described how ash was 'raining down'.

Stourbridge Golf Club chairman Simon Markey said: 'What was alarming was how the wind kept changing direction. It was like Armageddon.'

Prime Minister Andy Burnham speaks to the West Midlands Police incident commander during a visit to Stourbridge

Firefighters put water onto the smoldering ruins of a fire-damaged house, south of Stourbridge town centre

A person carries belongings in a suitcase, and a dog bed under their arm, as they walk near fire-damaged houses after a series of wildfires in Stourbridge

Some 54 people were injured and 19 were taken to hospital as a result of the West Midlands fires.

In Stourbridge, flames leapt from house to house as residents fled. Jane Baxter told how she could 'see the flames from our bedroom window' before police told her to 'grab what you need and get out'.

Neighbours said they fought in vain to beat back 12ft flames sweeping through their gardens and engulfing homes.

Resident Mark Bebbington recalled: 'It literally went up in seconds.'

Retired builder Richard Jones, 60, helped an elderly neighbour to flee the fire on her walking frame.

About 20 miles away in Highter's Heath, Birmingham, Andrew Reynolds, 42, told how he had watched his childhood home burn down, leaving his mother Kim Matthews 'a wreck'.

He said: 'My mum's lost everything. It's all gone, including 100 years' worth of photos from the family.' In Staffordshire, police arrested a 23-year-old man and a woman, 24, both from Stoke-on-Trent, on suspicion of arson following a fire in Goldenhill which damaged four homes.

'Firewaves' have become more common in recent years. In the record-breaking 40C heat seen in July 2022, London Fire Brigade experienced its busiest day since the Second World War as fires broke out across the capital, including a blaze in east London which destroyed 37 buildings.

Emma Howard Boyd, former chairman of the Environment Agency and current chairman of the Independent National Heat Risk Commission, said: 'The images of the last 24 hours, the stories we're hearing, take me right back to the 40-degree heatwave in 2022 – and I do think the public could rightly ask whether we've seen much progress since then.'

She told the BBC: 'I'm really hoping that we're going to hear from central Government how it's going to take a grip. This needs central co-ordination.'