Today we launch our Under Fire campaign to keep two fire engines in Finchley.

We support the embattled firefighters of Long Lane station who say the service will be overstretched if proposals to axe a pump go ahead.

Each week, we will bring you the latest in the fight to save the engine and tell you what you can do to play a part.

As things stand, Finchley is an endangered species -- it is the last station in the borough to have two engines -- but cuts to the service could soon change all that.

In February last year the station lost its fire rescue unit and Hendon and Barnet stations both lost an appliance.

Finchley's Fire Brigades Union spokesman Greg Edwards said: "It would be a disaster if we lost a pump. We can't provide the cover the area requires with a single engine." The union is writing to business and community leaders and already 1,300 people have signed a petition against cuts. Firefighters will be petitioning outside Iceland on North Finchley High Road today from 2-5pm.

The London Fire and Civil Defence Authority (LFCDA) will meet on Thursday to discuss the Chief Fire Officer's recommendation to lose an engine. If it decides to do so, there would be a public consultation and the decision would have to be ratified by the Home Office.

However, the borough's LFCDA representative Councillor Allan Turner said this week: "We do not agree with the Chief Fire Officer's report and we are going to fight for retention."

Finchley & Golders Green MP Rudi Vis and council leader Alan Williams have endorsed our campaign. Mr Vis said he would be registering his protest with local government minister Hilary Armstrong, adding: "The whole idea of having one pump in a station means that the station itself must be under threat."

Copies of the petition are available in the reception of the Hendon & Finchley Times, at 71 Church Road, Hendon, NW4 4DN. If your life or property has been saved by a Finchley firefighter, write and let us know.

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