Firefighters started a 48-hour stoppage at 9am today, pitching Armed Forces firefighters back into the front line.

The Fire Brigades Union executive confirmed that today’s strike, and another 48-hour stoppage beginning on Saturday, would go ahead following talks with employers at the conciliation service ACAS last week.

It had been thought that the firefighters’ leaders would call off the two strikes, but they said they had no alternative because of preconditions to negotiations which would lead to thousands of job losses and the closure of up to 150 fire stations.

Fire Brigade unions have rejected the local authority employers’ offer of a four per cent rise, climbing to 11 per cent in two years – with conditions attached, as outlined in a review of the service by Sir George Bain

The last strike, a 24-hour stoppage on January 21-22, resulted in 993 responses by military personnel across the UK, of which 664 were fire incidents, 87 were other incidents, and 242 were false alarms. A further 447 false alarms did not require a call-out, and there were a number of other incidents which were dealt with by local authority fire brigade staff not affected by the dispute.

But there are increasing numbers of more modern red fire engines – inevitably dubbed Red Goddesses – have been brought into action with the Service teams, and there are now a total of 177 Red Goddesses at their disposal alongside the 671 veteran Green Goddesses, built in the 1950s.

The Royal Navy is the lead service in ten regions:
Central Scotland (10 appliances, including 3 Red Goddesses, and 197 personnel in total)
Fife (9 appliances, including 3 Red Goddesses, and 201 personnel)
West Sussex (8 appliances, including 3 Red Goddesses, 177 personnel)
East Sussex (8 appliances, including 4 Red Goddesses, 177 personnel)
Hampshire (20 appliances, including 2 Red Goddesses, 399 personnel)
Isle of Wight (2 appliances, including 1 Red Goddess, 58 personnel)
Avon (12 appliances, including 1 Red Goddess, 272 personnel)
Somerset (5 appliances, including 1 Red Goddess, 141 personnel)
Devon (12 appliances, including 5 Red Goddess, 274 personnel)
Cornwall (6 appliances, 179 personnel).