THE county’s fire service will respond to every emergency call during the latest firefighters’ strike, a top fire officer has said.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Simon Furlong made the comments ahead of planned industrial action.

Firefighters are set to strike from noon to 2pm, and 10.59pm to 11.59pm, every day for a week from tomorrow as part of the ongoing row between the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and the Government over pension reforms.

Mr Furlong said: “I want to reassure the public that every emergency call made to the fire and rescue service during the strike periods will be responded to.

“We have a cover plan in place which we have utilised well during previous FBU strikes and there is an agreement with the FBU locally that striking firefighters will return to work if an incident occurred which required a significant amount of firefighters to attend.”

He also urged people to check smoke alarms are working and ensure power points were not overloaded.

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