England

Watchdog warns fire services can't rely on military back-up

The Government's been warned that fire fighting services in England would struggle to cope wityh a major emergency, if it happened when firefighters were on strike or during a flu pandemic.

The Audit Commison's warned that soldiers, sailors and airmen wouldn't necessarily be able to step into the breach in future, because of overseas deployments and the selling off of the ancient Green Goddess Fire engines.

In the past when fire fighters went on strike, British forces provided a standby service with the Green Goddesses.

A new report looking at how the fire service would cope with a reduced force of fire-fighters has now found that such a standby service could not be provided again.

The government's made it clear that fire and rescue services can't rely on help from the military in times of disruption.

The report points out that the wide remit of the fire service poses more problems for some brigades.

The Commission looked at every fire and rescue service in England, and concluded that a long period of disruption in the fire and rescue services could put public safety at risk.