A Welsh police force has released tapes of malicious fire calls in an effort to catch the hoaxers.

North Wales Police are making tapes of hoaxes available for broadcast, even if the caller has been identified.

RAF crews fought a blaze in Swansea

Deputy chief constable Bill Brereton says the force's policy is to crack down on hoax calls made during the fire strike.

He said: "North Wales Police will be robustly following up any hoax calls.

"When we find those responsible they will be prosecuted.

'Name and shame'

"We are releasing these hoax tapes to name and shame these people and if we don't know their names personally then we hope the public will help us identify them."

During the first 48-hour walkout, which began on 13 November, 14 bogus calls were made to north Wales' call centre.

In the first three days of the present fire strike, four hoax calls were made in north Wales and 16 made to control centres across Wales as Green Goddesses were sent to more than 100 genuine fires and several road accidents across the country.

Fast-track

The government has warned that anyone caught making hoax calls will be fast-tracked through the courts.

Hoaxers face up to six months in prison or a fine.

A Green Goddess and an ambulance crew attended a house fire in Neath just before 1130 GMT on Monday morning.

The fire, on the Fairyland estate, was not believed to have caused any casualties.

On Sunday evening, a 35-year-old man had to be taken to hospital suffering from serious burns following an explosion at an engineering workshop at Earlswood, near Chester.

A Red Goddess, a Green Goddess and a breathing apparatus vehicle went to the scene to tackle the resulting blaze.

It is believed oxy-acetylene cylinders were involved in causing the explosions, which one eyewitness said shot flames 100m into the air and were so loud she thought terrorists were attacking the Severn Bridge.

The fire was one of several major incidents requiring the military and retained firefighters not supporting the strike at the weekend.

More than 20 RAF firefighters spent two hours battling a blaze at a paper recycling store in Swansea.

The military was called to the location in the Cockett area of the city at around 1700 BST on Saturday.

Rescue

Also in Swansea, striking firefighters left their picket lines to help a Green Goddess, a breathing apparatus team and ambulance crew rescue a man from a fire in the early hours of Sunday.

He was treated at the scene in Uplands, by ambulance staff and the fire was extinguished.

Chief Fire Officer Douglas Mackay, of Mid and West Wales Fire Brigade, said: "Striking firefighters once again left their picket lines when they were made aware of reports of possible threat to life and successfully dealt with this particular incident."

Accident

The incidents came just hours after striking firefighters left two separate picket lines to rush to the scene of a fatal accident on the M4 motorway.

The crash happened at junction 40 of the eastbound carriageway of the M4 in Port Talbot shortly before 0820 GMT on Saturday.

Firefighters left their picket lines at Port Talbot and Morriston Fire Stations.

Firefighters on the picket line

A man and a woman died when a heavy goods vehicle crossed the central reservation of the elevated section of the M4 and collided with a car and two vans.

Two people were injured and taken to Morriston Hospital.

A man was arrested on suspicion of offences under the Road Traffic Act.

The M4 was closed in both directions between junctions 40 and 42 for several hours following the incident.