THE dulcet tones of John Prescott crackle over the radio on a cold night in the cathedral city.

"Don't walk, talk", the Deputy Prime Minister urges firefighters. But here, no one is listening.

Among the 50 or so firefighters and control room staff gathered on the picket line outside the station with flags and banners, the mood is one of steely resolve.

"We are prepared to stick this out until we win," says Fire Brigades Union pay-co-ordinator Ian Moore, one of the 100 staff who work from Durham City.

On a busy day, the station can deal with up to 100 calls from the public, with shifts split between four fire watches. Mr Moore, sporting an FBU baseball cap, says: "As firefighters, we are shocked and frustrated at the current position.

"We have co-operated with the wishes of the employers by postponing previous strikes to enable further negotiations in the hope of finding a resolution.

"But the offer we have received does not reflect a fair level of pay for a professional job and amounts to just over £9 more a week for a qualified firefighter, which is not good enough."

Fellow picket Carl Murphy takes home about £21,000 a year from his job as a firefighter.

He says the skills of modern firefighters are not recognised, nor, he says, is the hazardous nature of the job.

He describes an incident that happened last week when White Watch responded to a chemical leak at Durham University involving a toxic material in one of the labs.

This involved firefighters donning chemical protection suits, handling and transferring the material into a safe container, and then decontaminating the equipment used.

"There is no way the Army could deal adequately with this type of situation," says Mr Murphy.

"They would not have a special incident unit with the appropriate equipment, nor the manpower to cope."

Richard Morton, 44, another firefighter at Durham City, says: "I take home £289 a week, but I have bills, a mortgage and a daughter, and it can be a real struggle.

"We should be better paid and that is the message we are sending out here."

As cars file past, sounding their horns in support of the pickets, retained firefighter Warren Hodgson adds: "These guys, particularly the full timers, put their lives at risk for £6 an hour.

"I can get work in a bar for £5.50 an hour, so what does that say?"

Half-an-hour in, the pickets are joined by control staff colleagues.

The talk is of some firefighters staying on the picket line for a full 24 hours. It's going to be a long night.