A veteran firefighter today condemned the fire strike.
Soldiers are covering for striking Essex firefighters and have been called to about 20 incidents across the county since the strike began at 6pm yesterday.
Last night they went to put out a grass fire at Weeley Heath and early today put out a house fire in Chelmsford.
Today Colin Batten, station officer of the retained Frinton fire station, spoke out to condemn the strike.
Mr Batten, who is a builder in the town, joined the fire service in 1976.
He said: "I totally agree they deserve a pay rise but there are ways and means of going about this and taking strike action is not the way to do it when you are putting people's lives at risk and are part of a community."
Frinton has 18 retained firemen. Eight are members of the Fire Brigades' Union and are striking but the other ten firemen will answer calls.
Mr Batten said: "We can man two machines overnight from 6pm to 6am and one machine in the day with a minimum of six people."
Dovercourt fire station, which has 12 full-time and 16 retained firemen, is taking strike action and the retained firefighters at Manningtree are also not breaking the picket lines.
Sub-officer John Smith at Clacton said today it had been a long night on the picket lines.
He said: "There is a mood of resignation towards the strike but we all just want to be back at work."
Published Thursday November 14, 2002
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