Emergency services are warning that hoax callers could put lives at risk during the firefighters' strike and will face prosecution if caught.

Three elderly people died in house fires during the first night of the 48-hour nationwide walk out by firefighters demanding a 40% pay rise.

Police say they will attempt to trace, identify and arrest the hoax callers who are endangering lives while thousands of military troops are standing in for the firefighters.

There is not a replacement fire service working, there's the armed forces who are not trained on a day-to-day basis in fire-fighting

Captain Anthony Liddell

A 37-year-old man in Halifax is to be questioned by police after being arrested on Thursday in connection with making a hoax emergency call.

Call rooms across the country received bogus 999 calls but the worst hit area was Strathclyde in Scotland which received more than 230 hoax calls in the first few hours.

Lives at risk

Superintendent Ian Gordon from Strathclyde Police said the cost of hoax calls could be severe.

"I think people have to realise that for every hoax call that is made, the potential exists for a life to be lost," he said.

"It goes beyond reason. Certainly children make calls but there are adults who make calls as well.

"All these calls are recorded and they should bear that in mind."

Scotland's Lord Advocate Colin Boyd was expected to tell the parliament on Thursday that court action against hoax callers would be speeded up during the strike.

We set out one or two ideas about how we might progress this dispute to a satisfactory conclusion

Andy Gilchrist, FBU

Local authority employers will be meeting to discuss how to break the deadlock.

The Fire Brigades Union has already rejected as "derisory" an offer of 11% over two years combined with modernisation, but insists it wants a settlement.

It is hoped talks can resume between employers and the union after the end of this first 48-hour strike ahead of further industrial action later in November and December

Firefighters say they have had public support during the strike

FBU leader Andy Gilchrist told members at a union rally in Edinburgh that the strike was "100% solid".

But he added that the union had discussed "one or two ideas about how we might progress this dispute to a satisfactory conclusion".

Mr Gilchrist expressed his condolences for family and friends of three people who died in fires overnight.

But he said he was proud of the striking firefighters who left picket lines to try and help at the incidents.

"They were again prepared to risk their lives in order to save others," he said.

Armed forces

About 18,500 troops in Green Goddess vehicles, backing up retained firefighter crews responded to incidents overnight.

The Green Goddess appliances have been derided for being older, slower and worse equipped than the modern state-of-the-art engines.

Army spokesman Captain Anthony Liddell urged hoaxers to stop wasting the time of soldiers working hard to provide the best fire cover they could.

"There is not a replacement fire service working, there's the armed forces who are not trained on a day-to-day basis in fire-fighting," he said.

"They are trying to stand in for a very important emergency service and the hoax calls have not helped."

The fatalities included a 76-year-old woman rescued from a fire at her house in Newtown, Powys, who died later in hospital.

RAF personnel manning a Green Goddess were joined at the scene by local firefighters, who left their picket line after hearing a woman was trapped.

A man was rescued by Green Goddess troops with breathing equipment in Lancashire but he also died in hospital.

Give them what they are worth Messrs Blair and Brown!

Ed, UK

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Another elderly man died in hospital after a flat fire in the West Midlands.

Defence secretary Geoff Hoon defended the use of the Green Goddesses but said the government was considering training troops how to use modern engines.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that before the strike there was the problem of making the vehicles available while in use by the fire service.

Mr Hoon added that the threat of antagonising the FBU was another factor in not turning over modern fire engines to the troops.

Fire dispute at a glance
	Pay	Bain Review	Working Practices
Fire Brigades Union	Firefighters are calling for a 40% rise	FBU leader: "He has effectively wrecked the pay talks."	FBU leader: "Modernising the service should not be an excuse to undermine the union."
Employers	The employers have offered them an interim 4% rise	They have warmly welcomed the Bain report endorsing its "vision" of the future	"Any increase above 4% would have to be linked to modernisation and supported financially by the government."
Bain Review	Recommends a 4% rise in 2002 followed by 7% in 2003	"I think in the longer term it provides the only basis on which any kind of rational and equitable deal can be done."	Calls for reform and end to overtime ban and for more flexible working practices in return for a raise
Fire Service Minister	"We made it clear that if they [the employers] went beyond 4% they would have to fund that."	"I believe most fair-minded people would regard it as a good basis for the future terms of the fire service."	"Investment in public services must go hand in hand with improvement and modernisation."