Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service attended seven incidents during the 12 hour strike by members of the Fire Brigades’ Union that started at 2pm yesterday.

These were:

• Reports of the smell of gas at a house in The Prinnels, Swindon – a resilience crew operating in the Swindon area attended and found that the cooker had been left on.

• A false alarm at a property in Malmesbury, attended by a crew from the town.

• A false alarm to New Town, Swindon after smoke from a bonfire caused concern – this was attended by the Swindon area resilience crew.

• A shed fire in Westbury Leigh, which was tackled by a resilience crew operating in the Warminster area.

• A road traffic collision on Quemerford, where a man had to be rescued from his car, which was on its roof. Crews from Devizes and Corsham attended and used hydraulic cutting equipment to free the casualty.

• A road traffic collision on the M4 westbound between J17 and J18, attended by a crew from Malmesbury and one from Yate. This involved two cars but no-one was trapped, and firefighters only had to make the vehicles safe.

The crew from Malmesbury also attended a co-responder incident in the town, providing assistance to South Western Ambulance Service.

Crews at ten of Wiltshire’s 24 fire stations were unavailable to respond to incidents during the strike, but the service had contingency plans in place to maintain cover across the county using on-call firefighters and alternative locations as appropriate. As a result, there were 12 appliances available ‘on station’ and a further four ‘on call’.

As at 2am today (Sunday), all striking crews returned to duty. Further industrial action is planned from 10am to 3pm today.

A range of home fire safety advice can be found at www.wiltsfire.gov.uk