STATE-of-the-art kit designed to help fire-fighters protect the fragile environment when tackling emergencies from factory fires to tanker spillages has been bought.

Two of Cumbria Fire Service's reserve fleet of fire engines now have hi-tech computers housed inside their cabs,

giving fire-fighters access to information about potentially-hazardous sites and substances at the touch of a button.

The Environment Agency footed the £ 10,000 bill for the technology as part of its close working relationship with the fire service to help protect the environment from pollution.

The agency's environment protection manager John Pinder said fire crews heading to an emergency such as a factory fire would be able to use the computers to look at plans of the site and the drainage system, find out what chemicals were stored there and what the risks of pollution were, and get advice on fire-fighting techniques.

He said fire-fighters always reached the scene before environment inspectors, and valuable minutes could be saved by making sure fire crews had the information they needed to tackle the emergency and protect nearby watercourses and fish populations from pollution at the same time.

Fire service divisional commander for Carlisle and Eden Tony Stoddart described the computers as "absolutely crucial in safeguarding the environment and our crews".

For the future, Mr Pinder said it was important to store more and more information on the computers about river systems, industrial sites and highway drainage; to keep doing joint training exercises between the Environment Agency and the fire service; and to look closely at ways of protecting the lakes against spillages.