Thousands of Scottish firefighters are preparing to take strike action for the first time in 25 years.

The 48-hour stoppage is scheduled to begin at 1800 BST on Wednesday after pay talks between the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and the UK Government broke down.

The Army, Navy and Royal Air Force will take over firefighting duties in the eight Scottish brigade areas.

Fire facts

Scotland has 4,588 full-time firefighters 2,799 part-time firefighters 1,200 volunteer firefighters 520 fire engines 30 aerial appliances 14 rescue and emergency vehicles 59 other specialist vehicles 109 Green Goddesses will be used in Scotland

They will be working with less than 110 Green Goddess fire tenders - compared to more than 600 appliances and vehicles available to the fire service.

About 6,500 firefighters are expected to take part in the strike, leaving just 300 non-FBU staff on duty.

About 1,300 military personnel, many of whom have only had two days' training, will take over the service.

The armed forces will have only 40 sets of breathing apparatus and 32 pieces of cutting equipment, compared with the fire brigades' stocks of 2,300 and 240 respectively.

The Army will provide replacement emergency services in Lothian and Borders, Strathclyde and Dumfries and Galloway, while the Navy will look after Fife and Central Scotland and the RAF will look after the Highlands, Grampian and Tayside.

Justice Minister Jim Wallace said contingency arrangements were now in place - but admitted that public safety would still be put at risk.

Professional manner

"Service personnel have been deployed to temporary stations and are ready to respond," he said.

"I have never pretended that the military response will be able to replicate the service provided by fire brigades.

"But they are trained and will certainly approach their task in the professional manner that they always do."

Firefighters will strike for 48 hours

He urged the public to take extra care with fire safety.

And he described the decision to strike as "very worrying and wholly unnecessary".

On Tuesday the FBU - which is demanding a 40% pay rise - rejected a 11% offer recommended by an independent review.

Roddy Robertson, the regional chairman of FBU Scotland, said firefighters felt "disgust and frustration".

"Firefighters are very, very angry at how the government has interfered in this dispute," he said.

Rail services

"They have insulted us with a derisory pay offer.

"The armed forces will be totally inadequate for this job, it's like sticking a plaster on a damp wall."

Rail services are set to run as normal in Scotland during the dispute, despite concerns voiced by the country's largest railway union.

Strike dates

13-15 November Starts and ends at 1800 GMT 22-30 November Starts/ ends 0900 4-12 December Starts/ ends 0900 16-24 December Starts/ ends 0900

Strathclyde Passenger Transport, which operates Glasgow's underground, said safety procedures had been reviewed with staff and some engineering work had been postponed as an added precaution.

Train operator ScotRail said it had carried out risk assessments and planned to run all services as normal.

However, Phil McGarry from the RMT union said there were concerns over contingency plans put in place by ScotRail and Railtrack.

The union expects its members to turn up for work as normal - but has written to all its members stressing that they should not put themselves or the public in danger.