UNION leaders have vowed to fight to retain the third engine at Ellesmere Port Fire Station.

While there are no definite plans to reduce the number of appliances there, a possible cut has been hinted at by a Cheshire Fire Service boss.

Following the national firefighters' strike this year, Cheshire, in common with other brigades, embarked on its first Integrated Risk Management Planning (IRMP) process.

This concluded Cheshire is best served by the brigade shifting its emphasis from firefighting to fire prevention.

Chief Fire Officer Steve McGuirk said: 'In the first year of the IRMP, we will make moderate changes.

'These will see far more time utilised in making people safer by raising aware-ness, fitting smoke alarms, improving our incident intelligence and investigation and our operational response to incidents involving hazardous materials and the chemical industry.'

Existing standards of fire safety cover in Cheshire put great emphasis on response times to industrial and commercial areas.

But in the past seven years, 85% of fire-related deaths and injuries have occurred in residential areas.

The Pioneer asked Cheshire Fire Service what this change of emphasis might mean in heavily-industrialised Ellesmere Port.

Mr McGuirk's deputy, Chris Turnock, said the brigade was talking to the town's large petro-chemical companies about the shape of future services.

He said the brigade was also looking at Ellesmere Port Fire Station, which is unique in Cheshire and across the UK in having three engines.

This, he added, was an anomaly designed to meet the old standards of cover.

Mr Turnock said it has been 'some time' since a major incident in the Port required all three engines.

He added that most blazes can be adequately dealt with by the companies' on-site fire safety teams before extra engines were brought in from neighbouring areas.

Mr Turnock said: 'There is a resource sitting there that is not being used to its best effect. But there will be no radical change in fire cover during the first year of the IRMP.'

Dave Williams, Cheshire secretary of the Fire Brigades' Union, points out that the IRMP is a five-year plan.

'There will be another announcement on it next year, and there might be some radical changes,' he said.

'The public deserve to keep the same standards of fire cover in Ellesmere Port. We do not support any future move to go down from three pumps to two.

'If there was an incident at one of the petro-chemical industries in the Port, then by having three engines, there would be a better chance of keeping it controllable.'