ANGRY firemen claim Bolton and Leigh were left without fire cover for nearly 24 hours because a vital appliance is being "shuffled around".

And they claim the "dangerous" situation has been caused by brigade spending cut-backs.

A hydraulic platform which is stationed at Bolton and used for fighting fires in factories and tall buildings was called away to provide cover in central Manchester at 6pm on Monday.

And one stationed at Leigh was then drafted in to Bolton, leaving a large area to the west of Bolton without the back-up of the high-rise appliance.

On Tuesday, the engine was brought back to Leigh for a station inspection, leaving Bolton without one for more than four hours.

A Fire Brigade Union (FBU) spokesman said: "In our opinion they were on a wing and a prayer for a long time in Bolton. If there had been a big incident a platform would have had to come in from further away.

"Calling in a platform from somewhere like Bury or Salford is a considerable distance. The longer it takes the greater the risk of someone being hurt or a fire spreading dangerously.

"What doesn't make sense is that Manchester is surrounded by other stations much closer which could have released a platform, but for some reason they decided to pull it away from Bolton."

The FBU claims the problem has been caused by a hydraulic platform usually based in Tameside breaking down and not being replaced, forcing the service to shuffle appliances around.

The spokesman added: "We want the people of Bolton to be protected properly with the proper level of fire cover. If they can't have that for hours at a time something must be wrong. After all the public pays to have adequate cover through their council tax."

But Greater Manchester Fire service deny there is a problem. A spokesman said: "We ensure our appliances are spaced around the area according to risk. There is no reason for the public to worry. The hydraulic platforms belong to the whole service, not to Bolton or any other station.

"Ideally we would like a fire engine on every street corner but we all know that is not going to happen."

He added that appliances are regularly shuffled to suit the needs of the whole area, and said fire crews reached their destinations within official target times 92 per cent of the time.

He claimed official records showed that no hydraulic platforms across Greater Manchester had been cut during the last year.

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