FIREFIGHTERS in London saved over a dozen fire engines from being sold off yesterday, as a proposed alternative budget from Labour was approved by the authorities for consultation.

Members of the London Fire Brigades Union (FBU) lobbied this week’s London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) meeting where 13 fire trucks were expected to be scrapped.

But hope of defeating the proposal was restored when London Assembly Member Andrew Dismore’s alternative budget was passed by the Authority’s members.

FBU members protesting outside London City Hall were left ecstatic when told the news by Mr Dismore.

Both the original and the alternative budget will now been put forward in a public consultation.

Over the weekend, fire commissioner Rob Dobson accused the FBU of not accepting a deal that would see the engines brought back if the union agreed to give longer strike notices.

FBU’s London secretary Paul Embery refuted the claims as “astonishing” and “utterly untrue.”