The round of strikes called by the Fire Brigades’ Union over this Bank Holiday weekend has come to an end.

Following industrial action for five hours on Friday afternoon and for 12 hours from Saturday afternoon, firefighters belonging to the FBU went out on strike today for five hours from 10am.

During that time, Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service attended four incidents:

• A reported car fire in Gooselands, Westbury, which was attended by a resilience crew operating in the Warminster area – however, this turned out to be a false alarm with good intent.

• A road traffic collision at J17 of the M4 where a car had collided with a signpost on the roundabout – a crew from Malmesbury attended and made the vehicle safe.

• Two false alarms where cooking fumes had triggered the alarm systems – one at Bob May Court, Eldene, attended by a resilience crew operating in the Swindon area; and one at Gladys Plumley Gardens, Gorse Hill, attended by a crew from Royal Wootton Bassett.

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 11 appliances available ‘on station’ and a further three ‘on call’.

As of 3pm today, all striking crews returned to duty.