Blair fights firefighters with fire

Government threatens strikers with legal action and warns that Army could commandeer engines

The national fire strike descended to new depths of bitterness when Ministers warned that troops may be ordered to cross picket lines and striking firefighters could be locked out of stations.

As the 48-hour walkout entered its second day, John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, suggested court action could also be taken against the Fire Brigades Union.

Home Office minister Lord Falconer raised the stakes by confirming that the Government was prepared to order troops to cross picket lines to use the red fire engines if the union moved to eight day strikes next week.

"The priority is public safety," Lord Falconer told last night's BBC1 Question Time programme. "If public safety ultimately requires that the Army cross picket lines to get the red fire engines, then that is what will have to be done because ultimately public safety has got to come before picket lines."

A mother and three children died overnight in a fire at a farm house in Wiltshire. Police said retained firefighters dealt with the blaze which occurred at an isolated cottage in the hamlet of Sleight, near Devizes.

"As far as we are concerned it was normal service from the fire service and nothing to do with the dispute. No Green Goddesses were deployed," he said. Striking firefighters left the picket line to help fight the fire.

A spokesman for the Wiltshire fire service said that six fire engines and a water carrier attended the scene after the emergency call at 2.20am. "Whether there had been a strike or not it would have been the same crew who would have gone," he said.

Soldiers using Green Goddesses faced their biggest test yet in tackling a huge blaze at a fireworks depot in Manchester. Today's deaths mean that eight people have died so far during the strike, seven in house fires and one in an industrial accident.

Services were hampered by hoax calls, prompting Mr Prescott and the Director of Public Prosecutions to warn that those found responsible would face severe penalties.

Tens of thousands of London Underground commuters were hit by the effects of the strike when about 100 Tube drivers refused to work because of fears over health and safety.

Andy Gilchrist, the general secretary of the FBU, said many of his members had left picket lines to deal with a stream of 999 calls but remained solidly behind the campaign for a 40 per cent pay rise.

Mr Prescott made clear the only way of resolving the dispute was through a negotiated settlement. Ministers and the TUC are expected to make fresh efforts to get employers and the FBU talking again when the scheduled stoppage ends at 6pm today.

But in an indication of a hardening of the Government's stance, Downing Street revealed that 15 red fire engines had been transferred from the National Fire Training College and were being made available to troops. It also confirmed it was preparing to use a further 100 fire engines held in reserve.

The move followed criticism from the Tories that ministers should have taken steps weeks ago to train the armed forces to use normal fire engines.

In an emergency statement to the House of Commons, Mr Prescott made clear the Government "may have to review many of the issues which, until now, we have kept off the table.

"We have bent over backwards to be fair and reasonable. We have been met with action that is wrong and unjustified and puts lives at risk," he said.

"Faced with this, the Government will do what we have to do to protect the public. I say talk – don't walk."

The Prime Minister's official spokesman backed up Mr Prescott's warnings, declaring that he was "not ruling anything out" if the first of a series of planned eight-day strikes went ahead next Friday.

Among measures being considered are sending troops across picket lines to seize red fire engines – and the Government going to court to declare the strike illegal. "If we go from a two-day strike to eight-day strikes, we get into a whole different ball game," the spokesman said.

Government sources also made clear ministers were furious that strikers were spending most of their time inside fire stations, "making tea and playing pool. They only appear in front of the braziers for the cameras. If they are on strike, they should be on strike," one source said, suggesting a lockout was being considered.

Tony Blair rejected banning strikes outright but defended the Government's tough stance. "The nation is at risk, we are doing everything we can to prepare for that risk," he told BBC Radio 1.

Mr Prescott rounded on the FBU in the Commons, attacking the union for failing to agree to provide cover for the most serious emergencies. As one Labour MP described phone hoaxers as "scum", some government figures were hinting that some of the calls might have been made by strikers.

In the first display of hardline tactics by fire authorities, the union claimed last night that keys to fire appliances across Strathclyde had been removed by management.

Mr Gilchrist was given a hero's welcome when he addressed mass rallies in Edinburgh and Glasgow. An FBU source said the Government was resorting to desperate measures. He said: "They seem intent on acting like tinpot dictators. They accuse us of being militants, but they are becoming head bangers."

Iain Duncan Smith, the Tory leader, wrote to Mr Blair last night, demanding to know why more than 400 reserve red fire engines were not being used.

"The British public are being denied protection from the best firefighting equipment available. Equipment that they have paid for. The Prime Minister needs to make absolutely clear that he will not put the sanctity of a picket line before public safety," he said.

"He must give the firefighting equipment to the military and give them the training to use it, and he must do so now."

Earlier, Mr Prescott had stressed that military commanders preferred to use the ageing Green Goddesses because they were easier to train troops on. He hit back angrily at opposition suggestions that he lacked the political will to use more red fire engines. "It is the sanctity of life that governs me in my approach to this and not the sanctity of the picket line," Mr Prescott insisted.