By John Pienaar BBC News political correspondent

The government is making no attempt to play down the seriousness of this dispute.

That is partly to put pressure on the firefighters to reach some sort of deal.

But also because providing a national fire cover with less than 1000 ageing Green Goddess fire tenders would be a logistical nightmare.

The government has to do something, not only to provide some kind of cover but to reassure the public.

The reputation for economic management is very hard to win but painfully easy to lose

There is a bigger game, of course, at play here.

It is to do with managing the economy, and managing public services and their budgets.

That is worrying ministers every bit as much.

There are some authoritative economic forecasters saying that, with tax revenues lower than expected and a real risk of economic slowdown, the chancellor may be forced against his will to put taxes up again in his Spring budget.

If the firefighters get anything like the kind of demand that they are looking for, that could open the gates to a lot of other demands.

That is why other union leaders are egging them on, and that is why ministers are so determined to stand firm.

The reputation for economic management is very hard to win but painfully easy to lose.