Firefighters are concerned and quite rightly so. Their employers are wanting to alter conditions of service agreements and move away from national conditions.

Throughout the country it seems that fire authorities through the chief fire officers also wish to reduce the number of fire engines on call.

Your firefighters are concerned for the public they serve.

Who else would breathe smoke and fumes and risk their lives so that others may be saved?

The employers have now presented to the fire brigades union a 'take it or leave it' package and one must ask why the change?

Readers should demand from their MPs and Fire Authority councillors that conditions of service should not be weakened and the taking of fire engines from front line service is not on or readers could call at their local fire station and offer support.

Unless you have stood in front of a blazing property with a jet of water, attended a fatal road accident or found a dead person in the ruins of their home, you will have little idea what the professional firefighters do.

They are a local part of the community and we should show them our support.

Maurice Scott,

York Road,

Leeds.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.