Last night was the second 8 hour strike by firefighters to defend their jobs. Strong picket lines have managed to disrupt the attempts to break the strike by Assetco, a company hired in to break the strike.
In Old Street firefighters barricaded their fire stations and chained station doors to prevent them being taken over by Assetco. In Southwark a firefighter was run down by a scab fire truck.
The London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) has threatened to unilaterally impose new terms and conditions, specifically a new shift pattern, and has said that any of the 5,500 London fire fighters not willing to sign up to them will be sacked.
The next strike will be on Friday 5th, with the media screaming that this exposes the public to danger, a falsehood as the firefighters have stated clearly that they will still attend life threatening fires.
One striking firefighter stated: "If there's a fire, we're going to go and have a look. If it's a warehouse with no one inside, we'll let it burn down. If there's a life at risk, you'd have a job to do to stop everyone here going to sort it out. That's why we joined."

Assetco was originally proposing to run one fire engine each out of 27 stations. The strength of picketing has evidently made either the scabs or their employer feel uncomfortable, so they've changed the plan. Instead, three engines are being run out of each of nine stations: Shoreditch (Old St), Wembley, East Ham, Wandsworth, Old Kent Road, Croydon, Hillingdon and Hammersmith.

See Ian Lehair, of the London Fire Brigade Union speaking at the start of the anti-cuts march to the TUC in london, October 23rd

For more background on the strike and Assetco see: The Commune