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When striking firefighters abandon their shiny, new engines, they are replaced by military personnel in appliances built half a century ago. Why?
To compare a modern fire engine to a 49-year-old Bedford self-propelled pump - better known as a Green Goddess - is a little like comparing a Harrier jump jet to a Spitfire.
"For basic firefighting they're all right," says retired fireman Ronald Murray, "but if my house was on fire I'd want a real fire engine."
When production began in 1953, the Green Goddess was a state-of-the-art fire engine - unusually able to produce extinguishing foam as well as pump water.
The Green Goddess was designed to roll into action in the aftermath of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. The Kremlin never launched its nuclear missiles, and in 1968 the Green Goddess fleet was put into storage.
These "emergency appliances" have since ventured out to help pump water in floods and droughts, but are synonymous with walkouts by UK's regular firefighters - most notably the 1977 strike, when 20 750 servicemen manned more than 1 000 Green Goddess engines.
With firefighters now striking for a 40% pay rise, the Ministry of Defence is putting 827 Green Goddesses on call as part of Operation Fresco.
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