The scheduled four and a half hour period of industrial action by firefighters in England and Wales came to an end at 11pm on Friday 1st November.

The strike, the second action planned by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) as a protest against Government plans for pensions, was announced last week.

Chief Fire Officer Simon Smith said once again that he was pleased with how North Wales Fire and Rescue Service had managed its services during the strike action.

"The number of our firefighters who chose to strike was high once again, which resulted in a notable reduction in the resources that we had at our disposal. We were therefore unable to provide the same high level of response to incidents as we normally would and prioritised our response to those in most critical need.

"Our arrangements to continue to provide a service during the strike action worked well. Robust and well rehearsed business continuity plans were put into operation effectively and as soon as the strike period came to an end we were able to ensure a quick and safe return to normal services.

"The number of calls received and incidents attended was lighter than we would normally expect on a Friday evening and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the public for their cooperation and for heeding our safety messages.

"The service attended a serious road traffic collision a short while before the strike action started and I would like to commend our staff for continuing to deal with the incident into the strike period in such a professional manner.

"There will be further industrial action by firefighters next week on Monday 4th November for a period of two hours from 6am to 8am, so I would remind people that attention to fire safety and road safety remains of paramount importance and continue to urge everyone to take simple steps to ensure their own safety;

• Prevention is best - pay extra attention to fire safety in the home.

• Ensure you have a working smoke alarm - call us on 0800 169 1234 to arrange a free home fire safety check or contact us via www.freesmokealarm.co.uk

• If a fire does start - get out, stay out and call 999

• Don't ever be tempted to tackle a fire yourself.

• Avoid any unnecessary journeys during a firefighter strike and pay particular attention to road safety  - if you are unfortunate enough to be in a collision we may not be able to get there to help you as quickly as we normally would."

Advice on how to keep safe is available on www.nwales-fireservice.org.uk