FIRE fighters are threatening strike action unless Cumbria Fire Service agrees to reverse cuts to front line fire cover.

Senior Fire Brigade Union officials will meet fire chiefs on Monday to try to thrash out a compromise over the changes.

FBU county secretary Tony Callister said feelings were running high and the union would not hesitate to ballot its 600 members over industrial action.

But chief fire officer Michael Elliott defended the changes, based on risk assessments, saying fire fighters could spend more time promoting fire safety in people's homes.

"This is not about cutting costs or jobs.

It's about maximising the use of fire fighters to carry out community fire safety work and to protect the public, and not mobilising them to incidents and putting them at risk by travelling at fast speeds when they don't need to," he said.

The changes include:

l Halving the number of premises where fire fighters automatically take a turntable ladder on a call out.

These include some hospitals, office blocks and shopping malls.

l Sending one rather than two fire pumps on call-outs triggered by automatic fire alarms at commercial premises and some sheltered housing developments.

Fire chiefs say the brigade dealt with more than 1,200 such calls in 1999-2000, yet 95 per cent were false alarms caused either by workmen or faulty equipment.

Two pumps will still go to all homes.

Mr Callister claimed the cuts could put people's lives at risk, saying: "They are quite severe, such as the turntable ladder.

If we turn up to a fire and someone needs rescuing, if it's not there at the same time then there is a huge delay and seconds cost lives."

The union is also opposing plans to sometimes man major rescue vehicles - based at Kendal and Workington - with retained fire fighters rather than full-time crews.

Officials say it will take longer to reach people trapped in vehicles after serious road accidents.

Mr Elliott said rescue vehicle options were under review and no decisions had yet been made.