Firefighters' leaders have rejected a final pay offer of 16 per cent, raising the threat of a fresh wave of strikes across Britain.
Local authority employers says the "exceptional offer" would increase the pay of firefighters from the present £21,500 to £25,000 within the next 16 months, which was more than any other public sector workers would receive.
Fire authorities made it clear that the offer, tabled during six hours of talks at the conciliation service Acas, went to the "absolute limits" of what they could afford and would need £30 million of transitional government funding.
But the executive of the Fire Brigades Union has decided to recommend rejection of the offer and to seek an urgent meeting with Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to try to resolve the crisis.
General secretary Andy Gilchrist said the union still believed firefighters were worth £30,000 a year, the target the union set at the start of the dispute nine months ago. He also rejected demands by the employers that the union should end its ban on overtime.
A spokesman for the local authority employers said: "We are amazed that the union has so quickly rejected the offer, within a few hours of receiving it.
"After months of discussions they knew that this was the best possible offer that could be made."