Birmingham tornado 15 years on: 'A scene of total devastation'

The tornado affected areas of Balsall Heath, Small Heath, Moseley, Sparkbrook and Kings Heath in Birmingham on 28 July 2005

"I remember thinking this is what it would look like if a bomb had gone off... and no one seems to remember it".

It is 15 years since a tornado devastated areas of Birmingham. Lasting just minutes, it injured 20 people and caused damage that cost an estimated £40m to repair across Balsall Heath, Small Heath, Moseley, Sparkbrook and Kings Heath.

For some residents and emergency workers, the tornado was a defining moment but others have said the impact it had has been largely forgotten.

Whole rows of houses saw their roofs ripped off by the tornado

Adam Aston, now a councillor on Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, was on his first day as an ambulance technician at West Midlands Ambulance Service, and responding to the tornado was his first 999 call.

He said it was "amazing" no-one was killed.

Adam Aston still works as a paramedic for West Midlands Ambulance Service

"When we got there, it wasn't clear, initially, what had happened and it was only on the way we were told it was some kind of weather event, possibly a tornado," he said.

"It was a complete scene of devastation, big chunks had come off people's roofs and were lying in the road, street signs had been ripped off, trees were everywhere, there was glass everywhere.

"Our patient was a gentleman with a severe leg injury who was driving a works van which had been half picked up by the tornado and landed on its side."

Alder Road in Balsall Heath was one of the most badly affected streets

For Mr Aston, it is a first day he will never forget. "It was a very bewildering experience, a real baptism of fire," he said.

"I was incredibly nervous, you go through training and you kind of hope your first job as a front-line paramedic is something simple and this wasn't.

"Paramedics say you will always remember your first job and I certainly do.

"Over the years I have attended thousands of 999 calls, I don't remember most, but there are one or two I will always remember.

"The declaration of a major incident is very rare and I have not been involved in one since."

More than 100 firefighters were sent out as part of the search and rescue operations

Why did a tornado hit Birmingham?

Tornados form when ground temperature increases causing moist air to heat and rise. When that moist air meets cold dry air, it rises further and a thunder cloud may start to build. The upward movement of air can become rapid, and winds from different directions cause it to rotate and a "cone" or "funnel" of wind drops out of the cloud and hits the ground.

The UK gets an average of 30-50 tornadoes a year, but most are small and do not have much impact.

Birmingham's 2005 tornado covered a 1km path and reached speeds of up to 130mph, but lasted only a few minutes. However, in that time it caused an estimated £40m of damage as it travelled past 4,400 homes and 617 businesses.

Victoria Royce-Pagett, from the Midlands Storm Chasers, who uses technology to follow weather across the country, said UK tornadoes are short-lived and tend to be quite benign, occurring over open fields and not too often over cities.

She adds, though, that just through sheer mathematical probability, conditions will eventually create an urban tornado.

The UK gets about 30-50 tornados per year, but most have little impact

Through a window, Iejaz Uddin saw trees collapsing in the winds

Iejaz Uddin was at home in Moseley when the tornado hit.

"It went dark all of a sudden, so much that I couldn't see anything in the room," he said.

"Facing my house there were two very large trees in the distance, they had always been there and I saw them flop to one side, it was unreal.

"Unwisely, I tried to open the window and it was nearly pulled off its hinges."

The tornado travelled a one kilometre path, past more than 4,000 homes and 600 businesses

After it had calmed, Mr Uddin began walking around the area with a camcorder, recording the immediate aftermath of the storm.

"I was on Ladypool Road when I saw a friend I hadn't seen for a while, the shop he had been working in was now just a pile of rubble and he said he would be looking for a new day job."

The chance meeting with a friend sparked an idea and he ended up setting up a website that provides free CV templates.

"That has all come from a chance meeting with someone after a tornado in Birmingham," he said.

The tornado caused damage that cost an estimated £40m to repair

Deborah Kaya was a newlywed and had just accepted an offer on her flat in Woodstock Road when the tornado struck.

She never spent another night in that home after it was damaged and, after staying in her sister's attic room for four months, moved into her current Birmingham home.

The day after the tornado, she had to return to the flat to rescue her pet rabbit.

Deborah Kaya never slept another night in her flat after it was damaged by the tornado

"I was walking down Woodstock Road and I remember thinking this is what it would look like if a bomb had gone off," she said.

"Every house had something, roofs were off, windows smashed.

"Inside the flat it hardly looked like it had been touched, but then I realised I could see about three or four inches of daylight through the roof, and it had basically been picked up and dropped back down."

But Ms Kaya said she felt like nobody remembered the incident today.

"People you speak to, even people in Birmingham, don't seem to remember it happened," she said.

"I still think about it quite often, I was speaking to the man who lives in my old flat recently and he didn't realise that was what had happened.

"I have kids and I tell them about it and they are amazed that we had a tornado in Birmingham."

Many roofs were damaged, including at this house in Small Heath