IF your house in Haslemere catches fire during the night, you may not be able to call upon the local fire service for help for much longer.

This is the worrying prospect facing residents, if a government cost-cutting exercise gets the go-ahead.

The town is now at risk of losing its night-time fire service cover, which would leave residents reliant on a retained crew, or on full-time stations based as far away as Bognor, Chichester, Guildford and Farnham.

The government's Risk Management Plan has identified areas with a low level of incidents as targets for service cuts. The proposals were announced at a meeting of the Fire Brigades Union in Reigate.

News of the threatened cuts has incensed local firefighters, who claim that such a decision will put people's lives at risk.

"It seems likely that night-time cover will be cut in Haslemere," said Leading Firefighter Ray Easher.

"But they can't just look at data and decide that because an area has fewer fires, then you cut the service. Even if you save just one person at 3 am, once a year, then it makes a huge difference.

"Haslemere has quiet periods, but then so do lots of places nationwide and if this cover is stopped, our nearest full-time stations are Chichester or Bognor Regis, which are all a fair distance.

"It's just one thing after another in this area - an ambulance station goes, a part-time police station and now a part-time fire station."

The bleak news comes at a time when local recruitment of retained firefighters is at an all-time low.

Membership secretary of the Fire Brigades Union David Gaffe said that retained crews fail to address the problem and Haslemere residents are simply paying higher rates for a lower standard of service.

"It becomes harder and harder to get retained crews to work on a regular basis. It isn't meant as a criticism, because they do their best, but that is unlikely to be good enough when they have to deal with a serious incident.

"The person who has made the call would have to expect a five-minute delay anyway, because their response times would not be the same as ours, as they are coming from their homes.

"If they are coming out on a winter's night, they might have to clear frost from the windscreens, which all takes time. Their only link to the station is a pager they carry around with them, but the batteries could become dead or there may be a poor signal that they can't hear very well."

Mr Gaffe confirmed that at times there may not be retained crew available at all to deal with emergencies.

"It isn't possible to have retained units committing every night, not when they have other jobs to do and their own lives to lead.

"These are part-time firefighters who are not trained to our standards and it is becoming more and more difficult to recruit people to do this job, because it interferes with their other jobs and employers are less willing to allow them time off for it."

Assistant Chief Fire Officer for Surrey, Dave Curry, confirmed that under new draft proposals, changes to crewing arrangements at Haslemere fire station are being developed and will be taken forward to the fire authority on October 28, after which a full consultation takes place until March 2004.

Surrey County Council will then decide whether or not to rubber-stamp the proposals. If they get the go-ahead they would be implemented on April 1.

Mr Curry played down concerns that Haslemere could be left abandoned with inadequate fire-fighting facilities.

"We don't intend to leave Haslemere without any cover. There would be two retained crews at night and we would always do our best to maintain our 10-minute response time target.

Mr Curry defended the service provided by the retained crews.

"Retained firefighters play a very important part in the community and not surprisingly, are bothered when only the full-time firefighters are described as professional

"Retained crew are trained intensively and do their job very well."

If full-time night cover was cut, the implications could be enormous for local residents.

One family who were glad of a full-time crew in the middle of the night were the McKirdy family, who were rescued from a night-time blaze which destroyed nearly half of the roof of their historic 19th century cottage in Lower Street two years ago.

Two Haslemere firefighters were on the scene within minutes.

Night-time cover was also needed in January when a fire swept through The Swan pub in Chiddingfold in the early hours of the morning, forcing staff to run for their lives.

At the time the sub-officer in charge, Chris Sayer, told The Herald: "If there had been a longer delay and had we not had crews on duty, we could not have contained what was a very serious and spreading fire."

Surrey county councillor for Haslemere Christine Stevens was confident that the town will not be left without fire-fighting facilities at night.

"The executive of Surrey County Council will receive an integrated risk management plan as part of the new way forward for the fire service. This needs to be based on sound data and be properly conducted.

"As far as I'm aware there are no plans to reduce all night-time cover as this would not be the way forward, but it will be addressing the way this cover is provided. What is critically important is how staff are deployed and this will all be discussed at the executive next month."