BRITAIN: The Blair government, employers and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) formed a bitter triangle of blame last night over the collapse of talks designed to avert the firefighters' strike in Britain and Northern Ireland.
As soldiers fought real flames in a major fire in West Bromwich, the rhetoric of the pay dispute reached inflammatory new heights - with the FBU blaming government intervention for the failure of an 11th-hour deal in the early hours of yesterday morning, and Downing Street countering that the country would not be "held to ransom" with "uncosted, half-baked proposals" by the FBU and employers.
Barely five hours after firemen left their stations at 9 a.m. yesterday at the start of an eight-day strike, some 100 soldiers were battling to bring a major fire at a disused factory in West Bromwich under control. Nearby firefighters left their picket line after hearing that someone was trapped inside the building, but reportedly left the scene having established that this was not the case. Children were kept inside a neighbouring school as thick clouds of black smoke enveloped the surrounding area.
Firefighters also left their picket lines to free a man from his car following a nine-vehicle pile-up at Wallyford, near Edinburgh. One man died and two others were injured after another accident in Pershore, in Worcestershire, involving a car and a lorry, while troops had responded to some 50 emergency calls in Scotland before lunch-time.
A striking fireman at Gorton fire station in Manchester was shot with an air rifle as he manned a picket line, receiving slight bruising to his back.
In London, meanwhile, millions of commuters again faced disruption as 22 London Underground stations with the deepest tunnels were closed for safety reasons, and an estimated 20 drivers refused to work. The Rail Maritime and Transport Union again warned that its members would be balloted for strike action if disciplinary action was taken against any employees refusing to work because of safety reasons during the firefighters' strike.
Across the UK some 19,000 military personnel were providing emergency cover in place of more than 50,000 firefighters, with police poised to cross picket lines to commandeer modern red fire engines if ordered to do so by the government.
Deputy Prime Minister Mr John Prescott again signalled the government's reluctance to seek an injunction to have the strike declared illegal on grounds of its threat to life. He came under concerted attack from the FBU for his part in "wrecking" the peace deal brokered between the union and the employers just hours before the strike was due to begin.
The general secretary of the FBU, Mr Andy Gilchrist, said the "pattern of government intervention" had been maintained. "This strike action could have been avoided but the government has ensured there will be a strike," he said, while Mr Prescott insisted he could not have been expected to deliver judgment on uncosted and untested proposals in the middle of the night.
"It is an incredulous situation," Mr Gilchrist said later. "Is this the conduct of responsible government? We think not."
The FBU account had the union agreeing at 6.30 a.m. yesterday to suspend the strike action, only to be told by the employers they could not deliver their proferred agreement.
But Mr Prescott returned criticism on both the union and the employers, demanding to know why they had broken the linkage between any settlement and the modernisation of firefighters' working conditions, and produced a package they were unable to pay for.
Downing Street subsequently suggested that the "drama" of the late-night talks had been arranged by the union so that the government could be blamed for the walk-out. And the Prime Minister's spokesman claimed that the FBU-employers deal was an attempt to force government to bankroll a settlement for millions of pounds of taxpayers' money.
The chairman of the employers' side to the negotiations, Councillor Ted George, admitted that, while they had been close to concluding a deal, both union officials and employers had been unable to identify full funding sources for it.
Before holding crisis talks with the Prime Minister, Mr Prescott insisted he could not be expected to sign-up to proposals without seeing the sums involved.
"I am entitled on behalf of the public to ask that," he said. And while there was speculation last night that only a personal intervention by Mr Blair might now prevent the escalation of the dispute, the public words of ministers and officials appeared to leave little scope for compromise. Mr Blair's spokesman said: "How the employers thought they could agree the latest proposals is beyond me."