A fire authority has told the government it will not allow soldiers to use its equipment.

Avon Fire Authority said it would put military personnel and the public in danger.

The government wants to use seven of Avon's fire engines for military training, and then put them into action from next Friday.

The government has said military training on 15 red fire engines nationally, will be completed in time for next week's resumption of the firefighters' strike.

'Cannot comply'

Avon Fire Authority's chairman, Terry Walker, told hundreds of striking firefighters in Bristol, including union leader Andy Gilchrist, he had turned down a government request for equipment.

"We cannot comply with what the government is asking us to do.

"It takes 16 weeks to train a firefighter and we do not know how long they are going to train the soldiers.

I don't know what the advantage is in giving them to poorly trained people to use

Andy Gilchrist Fire Brigades Union

"There is a question about insurance and health and safety which is a problem for us.

"Most of our vehicles are leased and if the government wants an immediate response for a quick fix, it has to be no," said Mr Walker.

Bill Hendy, Avon brigade secretary for the Fire Brigades Union, welcomed the fire authority's decision.

"I think it is a common sense approach to the situation."

Seven dead

Oxfordshire's Chief Fire Officer John Parry earlier said military staff did not have sufficient training to use the vehicles, and that public safety would not be improved.

Seven people have died across the UK during the 48-hour strike.

The period of industrial action has no bearing on this rather tragic fire

Andy Hargreaves Wiltshire Fire Service

A mother and her three children died in a fire at a house in Wiltshire early Friday morning.

The four were trapped in the building at Stert near Devizes.

The blaze was attended by retained - part-time - firefighters, some of whom are members of the Fire Brigades Union and broke their strike to help.

Retained crews would have been covering the area, even if no industrial action had been taking place.

Andy Hargreaves, from Wiltshire Fire Service, said the fire was well established by the time crews reached the farmhouse.

"The period of industrial action has no bearing on this rather tragic fire," he said.

Six fire engines tackled a blaze near Devizes

The armed forces have been reasponding to calls throughout the second day of the strike.

Rescue teams in the West Midlands led a 42-year-old man to safety from his smoke-filled home in Birmingham.

Three Green Goddess crews, two breathing apparatus teams and retained firefighters put out a large fire at a carpet warehouse in Rugby, Warwickshire.

In Staffordshire, three police officers are being considered for bravery awards after they broke into a burning flat and recued a woman.

Firefighters in Oxfordshire broke their strike in the early hours of Friday morning to help people trapped in wreckage after a car crash.

Engineers in Manchester are decising whether to demolish a fireworks warehouse ravaged by a fire on Thursday.

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service say the police are investigating a break-in at Saxilby fire station after damage to a fire engine was discovered by the retained firefighters who work there.