FIRE fighters attended 39 incidents during a 24-hour strike including to a woman who was overcome by suspected carbon monoxide fumes in Colchester.

The incident in Queen Mary Avenue happened around 4am on Friday - three quarters of the way into the industrial action by the Fire Brigades’ Union (FBU).

The elderly woman inside was conscious and breathing when fire fighters arrived.

They led her to safety before she was treated by paramedics.

An Ambulance Service spokesman said: “We treated a woman in her 80s with suspected carbon monoxide poisoning. She was taken to Colchester General Hospital for further assessment.”

The spokesman said a cardon monoxide sensor going off was believed to have prompted the call to the fire brigade.

The fire fighters made the house safe before they left.

Another dramatic call out was to a major blaze in Witham at an industrial unit on Friday morning.

Overall fire fighters across the county were called to 16 fires, another four that were out on arrival and two call outs to flooding involving electrics in homes.

There were also three lift rescues, three road traffic collisions and ten false alarms.

The strike started at 9am Thursday and ended at 9am on Friday.

The action in Essex is part of a national dispute between the FBU and the Government over proposed changes to firefighter pensions.

During strike action, resilience crews, comprising of firefighters who are not union members, attend incidents.

In previous industrial action there have been up to 200 resilience firefighters on call, manning up to 40 fire engines across the county.