'Blair is to blame. He will have blood on his hands'

John McDonald believes he knows exactly where to place the blame for deaths during the fire strikes. It is not with the Fire Brigades Union or its members. Mr McDonald, the Scottish representative on the union's national executive, blames the Prime Minister.

Speaking after a 400-strong rally in the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh, Mr McDonald said firefighters "sympathised and empathised'' with those who had been bereaved.

"When we are called criminals and murderers by people in government, it makes our members very angry. Any deaths during this dispute should be blamed on Blair. He will have blood on his hands.''

Mr McDonald and other FBU leaders blame the Prime Minister for intervening to stop a settlement of the dispute. "He is the wrecker – not us,'' said Mr McDonald.

Andy Gilchrist, the union's general secretary, was engaged yesterday in a meet-the-members tour of Scotland, Northern Ireland, the West Country and south Wales.

Mr Gilchrist was greeted with genuine warmth wherever he went. He congratulated his members for their support in the strike, and congratulated them for abandoning the industrial action to attend life-threatening fires. It is not an easy intellectual exercise, but it was a necessary one to maintain public support.

He was constantly asked how he felt about the deaths since the dispute started. The question was of far more interest to the media and the public, it seemed, than whether the FBU would win its battle over pay with the Government.

The mood of FBU leaders as they moved from rally to rally was a strange mixture of exhilaration at being closely involved in an important chapter of labour history, and a personal and professional concern about the victims of fires.

Absent is the renowned black humour that normally sustains firefighters who have dealt with tragedies.

There is also a sombre determination to stick together and to stick it out. They are aware that while the public backs their campaign for higher wages, the support begins to fall away when people are asked whether firefighters should withdraw their labour.

They know the public's attitude could swing against them as the industrial action continues, especially if there are a series of deaths which demonstrably could have been prevented if they had been on duty. The mood of the leadership, however, is lifted by the enthusiasm of the membership at the rallies.

In Belfast 500 firefighters heard some old testament trade unionism from Mr Gilchrist. It's what they came to hear. These FBU members gave the union its biggest majority for industrial action. On a turn out of 83 per cent, nearly 97 per cent voted Yes.

Even the ancient enmity in the province took on a new form because of the dispute. Catholic and Protestant youths rioting in the Short Strand area of Belfast set aside their traditional sectarian chant and competed with each other to shout: "30K 'cos they are worth it.''

At the Tollcross fire station Edinburgh, Mr Gilchrist chatted to pickets as cars sped past sounding their horns in approval of the firefighters' campaign. The inevitable brazier kept the pickets warm and one had brought his tiny son along with him while his wife worked.

Elsewhere in the city, Mr Gilchrist, and Ruth Winters, the union's president, were greeted with two minutes of cheering, clapping and the sound of klaxon horns as they entered the Assembly Rooms.

A few words of greeting and a minute's silence for Robert Miller, the firefighter who died in a fire in Leicestershire last week, was followed by a closed session where Mr Gilchrist reported back on his talks with the Deputy Prime Minister. The FBU in Scotland is fond of its secretive Stalinist traditions. The FBU leader and his small entourage then moved by minibus to a 2,000-strong rally at the spartan Kelvin Hall sports arena in Glasgow where the meeting was entirely in public and the decibel count even higher.

In Paisley, the union general secretary was saluted by Acme Thunderer whistles as he stepped from the minibus to talk to pickets. The whistles are used by firefighters to warn their colleagues when a building is about to collapse.

In a fire station window, a placard took the Prime Minister to task: "Cuts cost lives. Blair doesn't care.'

The first day of the dispute was characterised by the predictable public slanging match. But the public stand-off between ministers and FBU leaders is belied by regular contact in private.

Walking through a cold wet Edinburgh on his way to picket at the Tollcross fire station, Mr Gilchrist got a call on his mobile phone from Mr Prescott. Challenged by the Deputy Prime Minister over the union's allegedly obstructive attitude to reform, Mr Gilchrist insisted that the union had signed up to modernisation. Senior firefighters consider Mr Prescott to be a shrewd operator, but someone who has not quite mastered his brief as the cabinet minister in charge of the fire service.

Their opinions are often expressed with vigour, and sometimes in industrial language. But Mr Gilchrist knows that a lot of this is just sabre-rattling. His real opponent in this dogged fight is the Prime Minister.