NEARLY 10,000 firefighter jobs have been lost in the past six years, plunging the service into its worst crisis in decades, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said yesterday.

In that time, government funding to the service has been cut by 30 per cent and is likely to be cut by a further 20 per cent by the end of this parliament, the union said.

The FBU warned that another round of funding cuts will take an already struggling service to “breaking point.”

General secretary Matt Wrack said: Thanks to the government, there are now 10,000 fewer firefighters across the UK to save people’s lives at fires, floods, car crashes, building collapses, road traffic accidents and industrial disasters.

“Politicians seem to justify the unprecedented cuts by repeating the line that there are fewer fires nowadays.

“This masks the real work the fire and rescue service undertake — 90 per cent of the rescues they undertake are at non-fire emergencies.”