FIREFIGHTERS have been warned they face disciplinary action for speaking out about sensitive issues like staffing levels.

An internal memo from the Lancashire fire and rescue service's management has warned crews they could be brought to book if they speak out publicly on 'controversial' issues.

Today the Fire Brigade's Union (FBU), said their members should be able to speak out over issues they felt could affect public safety.

But the fire service boss responsible for the e-mail memo said it was not an attempt to 'gag' anybody.

Firefighters in the county are holding a series of meetings over plans to reduce the number of crew operating a fire engine, with bosses aiming to put more resources into education and fire prevention. Eventually a ballot on strike action could take place.

A copy of the e-mail, from Michael Laws, the head of service delivery for central and west Lancashire, was shown to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph after a firefighter in Preston said the staff cuts could have put their lives at risk.

It said statements causing 'embarrassment' to the chief fire officer, Peter Holland, or county councillor Bob Wilkinson, the chair of the Fire Authority, or containing 'opinions on controversial matters' were likely to lead to disciplinary action.

Today Mr Laws, who oversees the work of individual station managers at fire stations in the central and western areas of the county, said his e-mail was simply meant to reiterate the rules each fire service employee had signed up to.

He said: "What I was doing with that e-mail was no attempt to gag freedom of speech. We are all bound by these orders and really the point of the e-mail was to draw people's attention to them.

"It would appear that someone has taken that out of context. It isn't a punitive action, it's a situation of reminding people what the rules are."

Today one East Lancashire's firefighters, speaking anonymously, said: "The fire service is going through a modernisation. People are apprehensive and concerned about exactly what is happening."

But Steve Harman, chair of the local branch of the FBU, said: "I have only just heard of this myself. We are investigating it now but we would be concerned if that was the case, if employees are raising legitimate concerns about their own safety and public safety.

"We accept it's a sensitive issue but the public have a right to know if the firefighters have concerns regarding the standards of fire cover in Lancashire.

"Normally we speak for the firefighters but it's an indictment of the frustration felt when individuals are expressing their concerns."

In the past, firefighters have spoken anonymously to the Evening Telegraph to raise concerns over the 2002 fire strikes, promising to turn out to help at life-threatening incidents despite the strike.