Green Goddess fire appliances were called to three incidents across Devon and Cornwall on Wednesday night.

The ageing fire engine was first to arrive at a road accident at Saltash - the military managed to cut someone out of a car, before a retained fire crew arrived.

A Green Goddess was also called out in Paignton to what turned out to be a false alarm.

A Green Goddess also attended a cooker fire in Torquay. No-one was injured and the fire was quickly extinguished.

Picket lines at fire stations across Devon and Cornwall were in place again on Thursday.

There are 12 Green Goddess fire engines in Devon and six in Cornwall.

All are manned by about 400 military personnel - mainly Royal Navy - and co-ordinated from the police headquarters in Exeter.

In many rural areas the existing retained firefighters who will turn out in emergencies as their union has no strike policy.

Fully staffed

But in cities it will down to the ageing Green Goddesses. They have a top speed of 50mph, no radio communications and will have to be accompanied by a police vehicle.

A total of 46 out of 58 stations in Devon are fully staffed by retained men and there is one station fully staffed by volunteers.

It is thought 43 stations in the county will operate as usual during the strike, and 673 out of 1,300 uniformed staff have said they will work as usual.

In Cornwall 24 fire stations are fully staffed by retained men.

Joint operations

A further seven stations are staffed by both retained and full-time firefighters.

It is thought about 23 stations will operate as usual during the strike.

There are 181 full-time firefighters in Cornwall, in addition there are 425 retained personnel, the majority of whom are expected to work during the strike.

Emergency 999 calls made in Devon are being dealt with directly by the joint operations centre during the strike.

Emergency calls made in Cornwall are first be dealt with by the county's fire control room and then referred to the joint operations centre if required.