On 13 August, a wildfire tore through Stourbridge on one of the hottest days the UK has ever recorded. In a matter of hours, 19 homes were completely destroyed, dozens more were damaged, and hundreds of people were displaced. I was in Stourbridge in the days of and after the fire, meeting family, friends, and residents devastated by seeing what was left of our homes and streets. Those experiences brought me here: compelled to empower our community to help one another.

West Midlands Fire Service sent over 100 firefighters to fight the blaze. But they were fighting a wildfire that was racing across open grassland and woodland with vehicles built for house fires and road accidents - not this.

This isn't the last hot, dry summer we'll see. A handful of UK fire services have already been given purpose-built wildfire vehicles through a national resilience programme: 4x4s that carry hundreds of litres of water off-road, can pump while still moving, and come fitted with wildfire beaters and misting lances designed for exactly this kind of fire. West Midlands Fire Service wasn't one of them.

We want to change that.

This fundraiser has one clear purpose: to fund a specialist wildfire response vehicle for West Midlands Fire Service - so that next time, they have the right tool before a fire gets the chance to grow this large and cause this much damage.

Your donation will help fund:

A purpose-built 4x4 wildfire response vehicle for WMFS

The kit it carries: wildfire beaters, misting lance, hose reel, pump-while-driving capability

Standard seven years of maintenance costs - so it's ready every summer, not just this one

Our goal of £140,000 covers the vehicle and its upkeep for its expected service life based on the costing table found at: https://www.london.gov.uk/dmfd279-terrain-support-vehicles - so this raises exactly what's needed to protect our communities across the West Midlands from suffering a tragedy like this again. Any surplus will go toward whatever wildfire response gap WMFS tells us matters most.

Nineteen families lost their homes this week. We can't undo that. But we can stop it happening again with your donation. Every penny counts. Help make sure the next hot, dry summer doesn't cost another community the way it has Stourbridge.

Fund the vehicle. Help stop the next fire before it spreads.