LIVES will be put at risk if Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw insists on Lancashire fire brigade saving £875,000 over two years, claim fire chiefs.

Savings targets have been set for every brigade in the country, but in Lancashire, officers say they face an impossible task.

They believe Mr Straw will prevent them from using their main cash saving tactic - ending the use of part-time firefighters in Barnoldswick, Colne, Great Harwood, Rawtenstall and Accrington, which would lose one of its three engines, and cutting a turntable ladder from Burnley.

And they are refusing to end their practice of sending two appliances to all known property fires and maintaining minimum crewing levels at present standards because they believe lives would be at risk if those policies were changed.

Fire chiefs say their dilemma leaves them only with the option of reducing firefighters' conditions of service - but even then they say they would struggle to meet the £875,000 target.

The Lancashire brigade is already under strain after losing 150 jobs since the 1980s and a reduction of £450,000 in budgets over the last financial year.

A list of possible areas in which savings could be made has remained on the drawing board over several years because of constant annual budget reductions ordered by the government.

Changes to shift times, reductions in entitlements to dental and NHS services and reduction of leave top the list.

But the possibility of taking away the jobs of part-time firefighters at various locations in East Lancashire appears to have been made a no go area for fire bosses by the government. A final decision on whether the cuts will go ahead was due to be made yesterday - but government bosses have rescheduled the crunch meeting for September.

The home office has encouraged county fire services to increase co-operation with neighbouring brigades, especially training and special appliances. But in a report to Lancashire's combined fire authority, officers say none of these savings would have any effect for three to five years, and even then would not reach anywhere near the two per cent cuts required.

The report adds: "The potential for further efficiency savings in the next two financial years is limited.

"However the chief fire officer has asked all senior managers to identify ways in which budgets can be reduced by two per cent without affecting current levels of service delivery. This exercise alone will not produce the £875,000 required."

The county combined fire authority finance committee will meet to discuss the situation at county hall on Monday, August 2.

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