Striking firefighters abandoned their picket line to help military crews rescue an elderly woman from her blazing mid Wales home.

Full-time officers arrived just minutes behind an RAF crew manning a Green Goddess, and helped pull 76-year-old Violet Davies from her smoke-filled bedroom and out of the house in Newtown.

Firefighters are in a very difficult moral position here

Dick Pearson, Fire Brigades Union

She was treated by paramedics at the scene, but later died in hospital.

Mrs Davies was one of three people to die in the UK as the 48-hour dispute - the first strike for 25 years - began on Wednesday.

The RAF Green Goddess team was sent to the woman's home barely an hour after the strike began at 1800 GMT.

The military crew arrived in just nine minutes, with the professional firefighters behind them.

The two crews worked together to get her out of the house, but she died on arrival at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

The stand-in fire crews were despatched shortly after 1904 GMT when the emergency call was received.

Dick Pearson, Wales Regional Officer of the Fire Brigades Union, said it appeared the woman's death would not have been avoided even if a regular fire crew had been the first on the scene.

He said: "The striking firefighters did receive the message, they investigated, and they turned out to the incident.

The RAF is staffing many Green Goddesses

"Firefighters are in a very difficult moral position here and in this case the serving firefighters at Newtown actually turned out to attempt to assist their community."

The Newtown incident was one of a number that the 40 Green Goddess crews in Wales have faced since taking on the role of providing fire cover.

Rescuers were called out to a house fire in Merthyr in the early hours of Thursday.

The blaze ws discovered in an upstairs bedroom at the house in Alma Steet, Dowlais and the call received at 0605 GMT.

Cars on fire

Crew members entered the building to check whether anyone was trapped inside, but found everyone had left safetly.

Two cars caught fire in a street in Maesteg minutes after the stoppage began.

A crew was sent from Litchard Territorial Army Centre in Bridgend, nine miles away and the crew put out the blaze, which had spread to a lamp post.

In north Wales a military crew based at Kinmel Bay was called to a fire in a market stall in Prestatyn.

Incidents handled in Wales

North Wales : 7 Mid and West Wales : 8 South Wales : 13

The call arrived at 1753 GMT, minutes before the fire strike started.

A crew based at the BP works in Port Talbot, south Wales, was called to a minor fire at 1840 GMT.

The ageing Green Goddesses - last seen on the streets 25 years ago - have been operating out of 37 fire stations.

They are directed by special command centres in the north, south, and west staffed by military personnel and senior fire officers.

All the vehicles are accompanied by a police patrol car.

There have been a number of other emergency callouts but the MoD said they have been dealt with by retained firefighters who are not on strike.

Serving fire officers in Merthyr Tydfil attended a blaze as normal when they were called out minutes before the industrial action began.

The crew was applauded by colleagues as it set off from the station three minutes before 1800 GMT on Wednesday to attend a car fire on the Heads of the Valleys Road between Dowlais Top and Abergavenny.

Wales' three fire services have each issued a telephone number people can ring for more information on how to protect themselves:

Mid and West Wales 24-hour helpline - 01267 223044/229286.

South Wales Fire Service home safety helpline - 0800 328 1830.

North Wales Community Fire Safety Team - 01745 343431.