North troops braced for action

Firefighters have returned to the picket lines

Troops across the North East and Cumbria are on standby as firefighters stage their latest strike in a dispute over pay and reforms.

Fire crews walked out on a 24-hour stoppage at 0900 GMT on Tuesday in the third strike by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU).

Last minute talks between the FBU and the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott ended on Monday without agreement.

Military personnel using Green Goddesses will again provide emergency cover during the stoppage.

We will get hoax calls, we do expect them, but we are just that much more experienced this time around

Captain Peter Thacker, Royal Dragoon Guards

Some will have access to the regular red fire engines, but Alan McLean, executive council member for the FBU said there were no such arrangements in the North East.

"As far as I am concerned there are health and safety issues with the Army using red fire engines.

"The Army do the best job to the best of their ability and I 'm very, very happy there is somebody providing a fire cover... but it is not anywhere near the same sort of fire cover.

"The Army have a limited resources, a limited ability, and they fight fires in a different way to normal firefighters."

'Break ranks'

During the eight-day strike in November an elderly man died in a house fire in South Gosforth, Tyneside, less than two hours before firefighters returned to work.

At the time Northumbria Police said some firefighters broke their picket line to help the military tackle the blaze.

John McCall, chief fire officer for Northumberland, believes striking firefighters would be prepared to leave their picket lines for serious incidents.

He said: "Firefighters are professional people... there is no doubt, should something happen close to them, they are likely to break ranks and deal with the incident.

"We have an agreement nationally with the Fire Brigade Union... so that firefighters could return to duty should something major happen."

Army expertise

In Cumbria, members of the Royal Dragoon Guards are on standby with 250 soldiers manning nine Green Goddesses.

During the strikes last November, the Army had to cope with a large number of hoax calls.

Captain Peter Thacker told BBC Radio Cumbria they were more prepared this time.

"We are more experienced within the joint operations control centre, we have got the expertise of the police and army commanders there on the ground.

"We will get hoax calls, we do expect them, but we are just that much more experienced this time around."