Firefighter strike passes without major incident

The authority had a total of 13 callouts in the region during the strike period, between 10am and 2pm, eight of which were automatic fire alarms which turned out to be false alarms.

Assistant chief officer Dave Walton said: “The number of calls received during this period of industrial action has reflected what we would expect at this time of day on a Wednesday.

“A significant number of the calls attended were received from automatic fire alarm systems, and ultimately proved to be false alarms.

“I would like to thank the public of West Yorkshire for taking extra care during this period of strike action, allowing us to ensure that those that needed our help were able to get it.

“Whilst this particular period of strike action is now over, our message remains that people should always take extra care to protect themselves, their families, homes and businesses from fires and other emergencies.”

The only callout the force received in the Kirklees area was at 1.37pm in the Lepton area of Huddersfield to a report of a smell of burning from a washing machine in a kitchen, but there was no fire.

There were 31 fire engines providing contingency cover today across West Yorkshire. The usual fleet is 54.

The decision for strike action relates to an on-going trade dispute between the FBU and the Government over its public sector pension reform programme.