The final scheduled period of industrial action at the end of eight days of intermittent strikes by firefighters in England and Wales came to an end at 11.59pm today (Sunday August 17).

It was the latest action planned by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) as a protest against Government plans for pensions.

Chief Fire Officer Simon Smith reported that the arrangements put into place by North Wales Fire and Rescue Service to continue to provide a service had consistently worked well throughout.

"Our business continuity arrangements operated effectively - we managed well with the reduction in our resources during strike action and were able to revert to normal services as soon each strike period came to an end.

"The number of calls made to our control room during the strike periods was lower than we would normally expect and I would like to thank the public for their cooperation and for clearly taking notice of our safety messages. However, we had two incidents of deliberate fire setting which is disappointing given that this meant our resources were stretched unnecessarily. Disappointingly, we also received two separate malicious false alarms from members of the public during two of the strike periods - this behaviour is completely unacceptable.

"Although this latest strike has come to an end, I would remind everyone that attention to fire safety and road safety remains of paramount importance. It is not known whether the Fire Brigades Union will announce further strikes and therefore I would urge people to continue to 'take extra care'."

Advice on how to keep safe is available on www.nwales-fireservice.org.uk, @NorthWalesFire (#takeextracare) and www.facebook.com/Northwalesfireservice .