A THREE-day strike has resumed this morning after a relatively quiet evening for Wiltshire Fire and Rescue and will continue until 3pm this afternoon.

Industrial action launched by the Fire Brigades’ Union started at 10am today. It follows a 12-hour strike last night which saw the fire service attend two incidents and a false alarm in Swindon.

Last night firefighters were called to a home at The Prinnels following reports of a gas smell coming from a property. A resilience crew operating in the Swindon area attended and found that the cooker had been left on. The alarm was later raised in New Town after smoke from a bonfire caused concerns.

Swindon area resilience crew rushed to the scene which turned out to be a false alarm. A road traffic collision on the M4 westbound between J17 and J18 was attended by a crew from Malmesbury and one from Yate.

The crash involved two cars but no-one was trapped, and firefighters only had to make the vehicles safe. Although crews at ten of Wiltshire’s fire stations were striking, on-call firefighters were on call to respond to incidents.

“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,” said a Wiltshire Fire and Rescue spokesman.

“As a result, there were 12 appliances available ‘on station’ and a further four ‘on call’.

At 2am this morning, all striking crews returned to duty. Today’s last round of industrial action will end at 3pm.