Newspaper headlines: ‘Houses burn and train derails’ and ‘Britain on fire’

A striking photo of homes ablaze under the headline “Houses burn and train derails on hottest day” dominates the front of the Times. Perhaps unusually, it is a headline that encompasses three separate stories from Thursday – the fires that raged across the West Midlands, the rail accident near Lewes that left two people seriously injured, and the ongoing heatwave that saw the UK record its hottest day of 2026.