Judith,
It's sad to hear about such a devastating fire as that. Containing and extinguishing such a blaze is something that firefighters get very frustrated with as progress seems very slow at times. It's dangerous and exhausting work. They often have to create fire breaks to try and stop the spread of the fire.
As you pointed out, the supply of water is cruicial for such operations and not always available in the quantities required. We in the AFS used to practise 'water relaying' and I recall pumping water over a distance of three miles once. We did this by using many pumps along the way to keep the pressure up. In cities like Birmingham, they'd rely on hydrants, canals, rivers and pools. Sadly, not many of those are around in the Lickeys!