Fire fighters dealt with mainly minor incidents as the latest round of strikes put 999 cover under pressure over the weekend in North Yorkshire.

But union bosses have also warned that the service faces further disruption as long as the Government remains on a collision course with members over pensions.

The latest round of strikes started at 2pm on Saturday and lasted until 2am on Sunday, during which the service was called out ten times.

Five were due to false alarms from automatic systems going off and two from 999 callers who were worried about something which turned out to be nothing.

One fire at industrial premises in the county was put out by the works team and an inspection was carried out by fire crews.

During the period of industrial action, between 12noon and 5pm on Friday the service also attended a total of 10 incidents including five automatic fire alarms, a crash, a lift release, a small fire in the open, a car fire, and a false alarm.

Not all fire fighters are these days members of the Fire Brigades Union which has voted for the action in a pensions dispute.

A brigade spokesman said: “During the strike period we had over half our fire engines available, across the whole Service area, to attend incidents if they were required.

“Following the earlier industrial action our normal service has now resumed and we will be attending calls as normal.”

Many fire fighters walked out again yesterday from 10am to 3pm for the third consecutive day of strike action and 12th since the dispute began.

Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: "Yet again fire fighters have shown the strength of their anger over government attacks on their pensions.

"It's very disappointing that we've been forced to hold another three days of strikes but nothing with deflect fire fighters resolve when the future of their families — and the fire and rescue service itself — is at stake.

"Surely it's now time for their games to stop and common sense to prevail?"