Troops in south Essex were kept busy by a string of hoax callers on the first night of the firefighters' 48-hour strike.

Police today vowed to crack down hard on malicious callers who could have put lives at risk by diverting Green Goddess engines from genuine calls.

Call out - an Army Green Goddess attends an incident in Long Riding, Basildon, one of many false alarms Picture: ROBIN WOOSEY

The first emergency in the county was a hoax call to a "blazing car" in Basildon followed by a similar call to Benfleet.

There were an above average number of malicious calls throughout the night.

In Southend, the Army was kept busy as they faced two emergency callouts just minutes after firefighters walked out at 6pm.

The Green Goddesses swung into action when the first call came in at 6.15pm, racing to a reported kitchen fire in Delaware Crescent in Shoebury.

Flanked by a police escort, both of the engines and the BART (Breathing Apparatus and Rescue Teams) appliance struggled through rush hour traffic to the scene, hampered by the 35mph top speed of the Green Goddesses.

One of the engines at first went to the wrong street, then crews struggled to find the fire hydrant, which raised concerns among watching residents about the effectiveness of the strike cover.

Martyn Hodder, station commander of Southend fire service who was at the scene in Shoebury as an observer, said: "It is not the fault of the troops if they cannot cover everything that comes up. "They are doing their very best under difficult circumstances and I feel for them."

Army firefighters in Essex coped with just over 20 incidents in the county, the majority of which were a mixture of small fires, false alarms and hoax calls.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said the most serious call was a house fire in Chelmsford.

Published Thursday November 14, 2002

Brought to you by the Evening Echo