Hereford firefighter Nigel Stroud has been on the picket line at his fire station over the last couple of days. He tells News Online his thoughts on the strike as it draws to a close.

I went to the station yesterday and on Tuesday night. On the picket line there's a mood of resignation but they're still up for the fight.

People are still very angry about what Professor Bain had to say in the so-called review. I think a lot of people are also very disappointed - they can't believe it's got this far.

The public support has been very good - on average one in every three cars that drives past is hooting is horn or the driver is waving.

Nigel Stroud (middle, back row)

We've had people come up and offer support. Some have even offered us supplies - food and wood for the burner to help us keep warm.

The strike has proved a point but now I think we're all really keen to get back to negotiations. We're all quite willing to cancel next week's strike to help negotiations along - nobody is enjoying this.

The longer it goes on, the more public support we're going to lose - we know that. It happened in the strike 25 years ago. But we believe in what we're fighting for and that's the main thing.

Negotiations

I think the last couple of days have proved to the government that we are serious about this - that we won't cave in. But the only way we're going to solve this is through negotiation.

I think if they came forward and offered us 15 or 16% I think we'd be more than happy with that. We've always said that the 40% figure is very high.

One chap on the picket line pointed out that if you're going to sell a car and you want �5,000 for it, you initially ask for �6,000. You never know, they might come up with the goods.

The last couple of days have proved to the government that we are serious about this - that we won't cave in

I've already said I'm perfectly willing to drive the vehicles during the strike and I think most of us are willing to take the stuff out. But there is an added danger to that - if we take equipment out while we're on strike we're not insured.

There's no way we would stand in front of anybody and obstruct them from using the appliances. However our main concern is that these are very sophisticated pieces of machinery.

Experience and knowledge

It takes four to five years for a firefighter to qualify and only then can that person go on to drive these appliances.

There was an incident last night where the RAF had to cut someone out of a car.

I think it took them about 45 minutes and when the firefighters came along with the same equipment it took them four minutes.

The armed forces are not trained to use the modern fire engines

A lot of it is down to experience, knowledge and technique and that's something which takes years to pick up.

Having the best equipment in the world, but not the training, is not going to turn you into an experienced firefighter.

We've certainly got no resentment against them using the equipment.

It was never the Fire Brigades Union or the firefighters who were stopping them from using the equipment in the first place - it was the local authorities who said they couldn't use it.

I think the authorities were worried about health and safety and also with the fact that sophisticated equipment needs looking after. It'll soon break down if you don't look after it.