Fire cover shortfall in West Midlands

The West Midlands brigade serves 2.6m people

The UK's second largest fire brigade faces an enormous reduction in staff and appliances during the firefighters strike which begins on Wednesday at 1800 GMT.

The West Midlands Fire Service covers more than 2.6m people and deals with an average of 290 calls a day.

During the 48-hour strike, armed services personnel will man antiquated green goddesses and take the place of the strikers across Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country.

There will be 47 green goddesses available to the region, against the 61 pumps normally used by the brigade.

Special control rooms will be manned by police and fire chiefs

Ministry of Defence spokesman

Despite appliances and personnel being concentrated on urban areas, the emergency cover cannot come close to replacing the 2,027 full-time firefighters in the brigade.

The West Midlands service could usually call on an additional 26 appliances such as hydraulic platforms and major rescue units, but these will remain idle during the strike.

There will even be differences to the procedure for responding to an emergency call as the brigade's 70 control room staff join the industrial action.

Extra precautions

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "Although 999 calls will be answered in the normal manner, they will be directed to special control rooms manned by police and fire chiefs."

West Midlands police will also accompany the green goddesses on calls.

The vehicles require an escort as they have a top speed of just 35mph (compared to 70mph for a regular fire engine) and it takes them longer than normal vehicles to reach that speed.

The West Midlands brigade has advised people in the region to take extra precautions in an attempt to cut down the number of fires during the strike period.