A FLEET of Green Goddess has arrived in Wiltshire in the event of a strike by firefighters.

Thirteen fire tenders arrived at the Army base in Colerne on Sunday and will be deployed if a strike takes hold.

A spokesman for the Colerne base, which is home to the 21st Signal Regiment, said: "The regiment here will not be manning the vehicles or undertaking fire fighting training. This is a simple contingency plan to put the fire tenders in convenient places around the country."

The Green Goddess fire engines were first used by the Army to tackle fires in 1977, during the fire service's first national strike, which lasted nine weeks.

They are the oldest working fire engines in the western world. Built in 1953, the vehicles were designed to provide a simple fire engine that could be used by untrained civilians in the wake of nuclear war.

The Army is training 650 soldiers nationwide in fire fighting. They would join more than 2,000 soldiers already trained in fire fighting in an operation codenamed Fresco.

The Fire Brigade Union is calling for a wage increase of 40 per cent for firefighters in order to bring their annual pay up to £30,000. Ballot papers are being sent to 55,000 members of the FBU. The results should be known at the end of the month.