November 24, 2002	Sunday	Ramazan 18, 1423

LONDON, Nov 23: Britain’s Labour government came under increasing criticism on Saturday over its handling of a national firefighters strike as four people suffered fire-related deaths and a striking fireman’s home was torched.

As the eight-day strike by firefighters over pay went into a second day, there were warnings of wider industrial unrest.

Some 52,000 firefighters began striking on Friday after last-ditch talks between the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and employers failed to reach a breakthrough.

Four people were killed in separate house fires across England and a mother and her two children escaped a suspected arson attack on the home of a firefighter.

John Monks, leader of the Trades Union Congress, Britain’s umbrella union organisation, on Saturday condemned the government’s “clumsy, shoot from the hip” approach to the dispute.

Bill Morris, leader of the Transport and General Workers Union, suggested in an interview with BBC radio that an agreement reached by the FBU and the firefighters’ local authority employers during eleventh hour talks had been deliberately “scuppered”.—AFP