Three die during first night of fire strike

Green Godesses responded to hundreds of calls in the first night of the firefighters' strike, during which at least three elderly people died in house fires.

The first fatality was reported an hour after the strike started when a woman, aged 76, died in hospital after a fire at Newtown, mid-Wales. Early this morning a second death was reported when an elderly man died in Burnley, Lancashire.

The third death occurred in the West Midlands when troops were called out to a fire in a flat in Halesowen. Inspector Kevin Kelsey of West Midlands Police could not confirm how long it took for the Green Goddess and two breathing apparatus rescue team vehicles (Bart) to arrive at the flat at Lyttleton House, in Blackberry Lane.

He said the elderly man was evacuated from his bedroom and taken to hospital, where he later died.

Armed Forces had to deal with many hoaxes and some small fires in cars and rubbish bins appeared to have been started deliberately.

Tony Blair condemned the striking firefighters as wreckers last night while troops in Green Goddess fire engines began answering emergency calls at the start of the country's first national strike for 25 years.

As both sides dug themselves in for a long-running dispute, Mr Blair warned in a scathing Commons attack on the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) that "no government on earth" could afford their 40 per cent pay claim.

The Government's hard line was matched by Andy Gilchrist, the leader of the FBU, who said that only a "significant and serious" wage increase would mollify the 50,000 union members he led out on the two-day strike at 6pm

Moments before the walkout, John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, hinted that more money could be offered than the 11 per cent over two years currently on the negotiating table and called for the action to be called off. But as picket lines were set up outside fire stations across the country, the frontline firefighting role fell to the armed forces.

The strike led immediately to wider disruption with 22 deep-lying London Underground stations closed because of safety concerns.

Military planners admitted yesterday that their 19,000 swiftly trained personnel, with their fleet of 50-year-old vehicles, could not do the job as well as full-time civilian teams.

But Mr Prescott insisted that after four hours of talks with FBU leaders he had reached agreement for emergency cover in the event of a disaster. "If a serious incident happened, there is sufficient understanding that the firemen would be able to deal with that," he said.

Mr Blair repeated the "wrecker" accusation that he first made against critics of his plans to reform public services. He told MPs: "No government with inflation at around 2 per cent could yield to a wage claim of 40 per cent with the insistence that any claim is unlinked to any change in working practices at all."

He added: "If we said yes to 40 per cent for firefighters, how could we, or any government, say no to a 40 per cent claim for teachers, or nurses or police officers? And if we said yes to all, the consequence is so clear that it hardly bears spelling out.

"After all the hard work to get low inflation, low unemployment, low mortgage rates ­ the lowest in each case for decades ­ after all that hard work to stabilise the economy, we would simply wreck it and take this country back to days that I believe we all hope have gone for ever. Even now, I hope, after this 48-hour stoppage, common sense will prevail," he said.

Mr Prescott struck a more conciliatory note when he made a final plea for the firefighters to abandon their action. He distanced himself from the "rhetoric" on both sides and made clear that a further above-inflation offer could be made after the proposed two-year pay deal ran out. The Deputy Prime Minister said the offer proposed by Sir George Bain's review was generous but added that extra money could be on the table if the FBU agreed to further modernisation. "There's room for more negotiations to get more money," he said.

Mr Gilchrist was at Lambeth fire station in London, near the Houses of Parliament, to signal the start of the strike before embarking on a nationwide tour to rally support until the end of the stoppage tomorrow night. He said the strike had been called with "extreme sadness and regret" but blamed the Government and local authority employers. "There is a resolution to this dispute: it is a significant and serious increase in the amount of money our people are paid," he said.

Mr Gilchrist said firefighters were "the most extraordinary humanitarians" and would leave picket lines in the event of a "catastrophic event".

Employers' leaders were pessimistic on the prospects of breaking the deadlock. The union is planning three eight-day strikes when the 48-hour walkout ends ­ from 22 to 30 November, 4 to 12 December and 16 to 24 December.