AMBULANCE staff today warned of further tragedies after only one paramedic arrived to help the three sisters who died in an East Lancashire house fire.

Louise Waddington, 11, and her sisters Hayley, 10, and Gemma, seven, died when fire swept through their home in Hapton, despite the frantic attempts of their mother Jayne to save them.

Three ambulances - two from Burnley and one from Altham - were on the scene within minutes when fire took hold in Lancaster Drive just before midnight on Friday.

But crew members say that only one paramedic attended the fire - leading to fears he would have had to choose which sister to treat first if they could have been saved.

Lancashire Ambulance Service bosses yesterday confirmed only one paramedic had attended the fire, adding that a shortage of trained paramedics meant crews regularly attended emergencies with technicians.

Unlike paramedics, who have extensive training in administering drugs, CPR and intubating patients, technicians are only given advanced training in first aid.

A technician from Burnley ambulance station, who did not wish to be named, said: "There were three ambulances at the house fire, but only one paramedic on board. The other vehicles were covered by technicians because we have a shortage of paramedics.

"So one paramedic had to intubate all three girls. We can't say that they could have saved those children, they possibly couldn't have. But suppose you had three children and two of them were viable - which one does the paramedic treat ?

"They would have had to play God. At another emergency a lack of paramedics could prove fatal. This is happening more and more. The same happened at the road accident in Haslingden - there were three ambulances and just one paramedic.

"There should be one paramedic in every vehicle. It is causing stress and depressionand means people are not getting the service that they should be."

Bosses at Unison, the public services union, have backed ambulance workers' concerns. Frank Hont, regional secretary for Unison, said: "We have concerns about the number of people being trained as paramedics. Our members do a great job and we want the employers to look at the level of training."

Paramedics undergo a 12-week training programme in life-saving techniques. Bosses at Lancashire Ambulance Service say they currently face a backlog in the number of technicians training to become paramedics but stressed that across East Lancashire a paramedic is assigned to every ambulance on their staff rota.

However, Steve Watt, director of accident and emergency operations sai annual leave and sickness mean not all vehicles have paramedics. He said: "This is an awful tragedy. But had any of them survived we would have given them the proper care. We do have a paramedic assigned to every vehicle on the rota and we do try and get a paramedic into every ambulance.

"Had this tragic case been different we would be extremely confident that the skills of the technician would have dealt with the situation."