A Stourbridge photographer is offering to help families affected by the recent fire by replacing their lost photographs from her business archive.

Jane Jordan, who has run a photography business in Stourbridge for more than 16 years, said it "would mean everything" to help even one family recover images destroyed in the blaze.

The fire's impact

The fire consumed 19 properties and damaged 18 others in the area. Jordan was at home at the time and witnessed the disaster firsthand.

"It was so frightening," she recalled. "I was actually at home at the time and our road is right next to the Norton Road. I could smell the fire and started to look out of the window and I could just see the sky was getting darker and darker with billowing smoke."

She described how ash rained down on her property as the fire spread. "It was just so frightening, we just were desperately trying to find out what was happening and where it was coming from. It was pretty terrifying."

How Jordan can help

Jordan's response was to find a way to help those affected. "We could see the chaos, and you just feel like you want to help in some way but feel a bit helpless at the time," she said.

More than a week after the incident, Jordan realised her extensive photo archives could ease families' pain. "There's a lot of families that have come back year after year and I know that these are photos that can't be recreated," she explained.

"I do archive all my photographs, it is a very good chance if a family has lost the photos I can go back through the archives and replace them. Even if just one family can get back the photographs they thought they'd lost forever, that would mean everything to me if I could give that back to them."

Protecting photographs for the future

Jordan has advised clients to back up their most cherished photographs. "I always send advice, please back these up to at least two locations. Some kind of Cloud storage if you can, is always a good idea and then have a second place where you keep them. Just to know you'll be able to access them in the future is really important. It's really worth thinking about."

Families who used Jordan's photography services and lost images in the fire can contact her to check whether she holds copies in her archive.