A NUMBER of car fires in Kent within hours of the firefighters' strike beginning are believed to have been started deliberately.

Chief Fire Officer Peter Coombes thinks the blazes were started by arsonists who wanted to test the Army's ability to deal with incidents in its ageing Green Goddesses.

Mr Coombes said: "Not long after 6pm yesterday there was a number of car fires in Chatham attended by the military. I think some people caused them just to test the military, but that soon died down."

The car fires were part of an otherwise fairly quiet night in the county. The 18 ageing engines stationed at nine Amy bases in Kent dealt with just 10 call-outs in the first 12 hours of the strike, with the police attending nine jobs and retained firefighters dealing with another five incidents.

Nobody was reported injured in any of the fires, the most serious of which was a house fire in Canterbury.

But elsewhere in the country, three people died as a result of house fires in the first eight hours of the strike. The tragies happened in Mid Wales, Halesowen in the West Midlands, and Burney. In all three cases rescuers were quickly on the scene and it was not clear whether the strike had any effect on the outcome.

While some of areas of the UK were swamped with hoax calls in the first few hours of the strike, Kent received just one malicious false alarm all night.

Outside Medway Fire Station, Terry Carter, vice-chairman of the Fire Brigades Union in Kent, said: "We are not having a go at the public, but the government."

Meanwhile, the firefighters have come under attack from the leader of Swale Borough Council Cllr Andrew Bowles (Con).

He told last night's full council meeting that, for once, he agreed with Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's statement that the action of Fire Brigades Union was unacceptable and its demands were unrealistic. He added: "I think the action they are taking is totally immoral."

Cllr Bowles said there were no Green Goddess fire engines in Swale. The nearest ones were stationed at Canterbury, Maidstone and Gillingham which meant some residents were a considerable distance away if there was an emergency.

He stressed: "I urge all the residents of Swale to be particularly careful during this 48 hours and in future strikes to avoid any unnecessary risk."

RETAINED firefighters at Sheerness, who are not members of the striking Fire Brigades Union, took their own fire engine from an unmanned fire station on Wednesday night. They and retained colleagues at Eastchurch, also non-union members, are continuing to provide a service on Sheppey during the 48-hour strike.

Retained firefighters at Queenborough are all members of the union and are not working.

It is thought that the night-time 'rescue' of the fire engine was carried out to avoid a confrontation on the following morning's picket line.

When the Sheerness full-time crews arrived this morning they found the retained men's engine gone. It is not known where the engine is being kept or whether it is still on the Island.