Disabled woman dies in Peterborough flat fire
A disabled woman has died in a blaze at a flat in Peterborough.
It happened in Risby, North Bretton, about an hour and a half before members of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) were due to end strike action on Thursday afternoon.
The woman, who was aged in her 50s, died at the scene.
Cambridgeshire Fire Service said its contingency plan meant the same number of crews arrived within the same time as during normal working.
Three crews went to the flat, with the first firefighters arriving on the scene 11 minutes after the 999 call was received at 17.38 BST, a spokesman said.
The fire was extinguished within an hour. The cause is not yet known.
Chief fire officer Graham Stagg said: "Three crews - one from Dogsthorpe, one from Stanground and an on-call crew - responded to the incident immediately and arrived in the time we normally would, with the same number of crews as usual, had FBU members not been striking.
"The on-call crew was returned to base as it was not required at the scene.
"Unfortunately a disabled female resident was already deceased on our arrival."
Sir Peter Brown, chairman of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority, said: "I know the members of our service reacted in their usual professional way to this call and maximum efforts were made to deal with the incident."
The FBU has announced eight further days of national strike action from 14 July over proposed pension and retirement reforms.
Cambridgeshire Fire Service urged residents to take extra care to help reduce the chances of a fire or road traffic collision happening during the strikes.