EMOTIONS ran high as a packed audience of firefighters voted in favour of holding a strike ballot at yesterday's union meeting.

Andy Gilchrist, the Fire Brigades Union's national secretary, was at the central Middlesbrough station, on Park Road South, to rally support against the proposed relocation of the Cleveland Brigade's control room.

The response from local fire service workers was overwhelmingly in favour of blocking the move - even if it meant strike action.

Mr Gilchrist said the ballot was the last resort.

"This union has been campaigning for some time against the proposals," he said.

"If they were talking about something that might improve the levels of efficiency, safety or service to the public we would be interested, but it's about saving money."

Under the proposed change, the Home Office suggests that fire control operators move from the Cleveland Brigade's Hartlepool headquarters to Ladgate Lane, in Middlesbrough. They would share a system for answering calls with the police and ambulance service, which already operate from the site.

Tommy Kerrmorgan, chairman of the Cleveland Fire Brigade, said: "Our system can respond in 30 to 60 seconds but theirs can only respond in two or three minutes. By that time, people could be dead."

The Cleveland merger is among the first proposed by the Government as part of a national streamlining exercise.

Mr Gilchrist predicted that, despite official assurances, it would lead to massive job losses.

"Up to 1,000 control operators are directly under threat," he said.

Ian Hudson, a Cleveland firefighter, said that while the prospect of a strike worries him, it seems the only option.

"I'm prepared to commit myself to going on strike. I think we've got to the stage where it is the only way we are going to be listened to," he said.