WITH fire-bug idiots already chucking fireworks around out there, the bolshie firemen set to strike 36 times before Christmas over their 40 per cent pay claim can be sure of one outcome right now -- that any public sympathy for them has gone up in smoke.

I don't know how they have the gall to call themselves public servants -- when their action stands to leave all of East Lancashire covered by just nine clapped-out, 50-year-old, 35-mph 'Green Goddess' fire engines manned by untrained soldiers. And what happens when the squaddies scoot off to war with Iraq?

Just contrast this with our region's normal cover of 35 fire engines and 154 qualified firefighters.

The risk to which they are subjecting families -- old folk and children especially -- is both dreadful and scandalous. Above all, when it is in the name of greed backed by such gun-to-the-head coercion. And their union leader in Lancashire has the neck to regret that they have 'no other option.'

How about putting in a sensible pay claim for a start? For, where on earth does their union get that 40 per cent figure from?

Hardship? Give over -- firemen may not be the best-paid public servants, but they are already on over £2,000 a year more than the average earner here in East Lancashire. If they got the £30,000 they are about to strike for, they would be more than £11,500 better off than the taxpayers who pay them.

Danger? Well, yes, the job does have its risks -- but it is actually less dangerous than working on a building site or a farm.

Falling behind the rest? Nah! -- not when other workers in the public sector this year demanded just a six per cent rise in order to 'catch up'.

Average earnings went up by just 3.8 per cent at the last monthly count -- and that was a fall on the month before. And inflation is just 1.7 per cent.

Overwork? Rubbish! -- firemen get called out just 10 per cent of the time they are on duty. No wonder many are such good snooker players.

On top of this, their hours and shifts allow many of them to do two jobs -- and collect another wage.

Stress? Yes, well, when your cue ball's snookered, it can be somewhat harrowing. But it's not as if hanging around the fire station most of the time is stressful, is it? That's a lot different from being on the go all through the working day like nurses, or -- dare I say it? -- teachers.

And let's not mince words about this -- it is against these quite comfortable pay and conditions, which many workers would envy, that these firemen are prepared to put our lives at risk.

The public should join the government in telling them to go to blazes.