BEFORE you go slagging off firefighters in your paper, be sure that you quote the right facts will you, Eric Leaver?

I work in GMC and the calls at my station have more than doubled in the last eight to 10 years.

I notice that nowhere do you say what your salary is and I would class you in the league as stated by George Galloway MP as one of those reporters who get paid very well for reporting nothing more than a cat up a tree.

It is quite clear that your understanding of the fire service today is on a par with most of the general public who know nothing of the workings of the service or understand it or the way it is funded.

If you had any credibility whatsoever you would be telling the Lancashire reading public how this so-called wonderful Government have been robbing the fire service of funding for years and can be proved with the £5million shortfall in Greater Manchester Fire Service for this year which is only one of many, and that it is they who are putting not only one of many, and that it is they who are putting not only the general public's life at risk but that of all firefighters.

So if you must resort to telling the story go to a fire station and find out for real what the real truth is and stop filling your readers heads with the rubbish you are writing.

As for the dangers of various industries the fire service is safe because we all take health and safety very serious unlike some of those you mention.

Another thing you fail to mention, firefighters are now classed in the professional bracket where the current average is around £38,000.

I note that your piece fails to mention that we are not paid overtime for working Saturday and Sunday and that no shift allowance is payable for working nights, all quite conveniently left out to con the public of Lancashire.

As for "our" lives being at risk, they are at risk every day that you cross the road, they are at risk every time you walk down stairs, so stop the scaremongering amongst the public.

DAVID DARBY, Buckley Lane, Farnworth, Bolton.