FAWLEY Refinery bosses have vowed to always ring the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service when they have an incident which merits it.

There were suggestions at a New Forest environment meeting at Fawley's Jubilee Hall that the refinery leaves incidents to its own fire crews when outside help should be sought.

Fawley parish councillor and retired firefighter Eddie Holtham recalled a number of incidents in recent years, including one which burned for six hours on July 8, where the Hampshire service was not called in.

He said that while he accepted the training of the Esso firefighters was excellent, he believed their numbers had been reduced to a level which could make them ineffective.

"Due to the local fire stations being part-time, the procedures laid down and the size of the refinery, it could take 27 minutes for the local stations to get in attendance, say, at the Marine Terminal, from the time the call is put in.

"So it is of paramount importance that a call is made at the earliest point, not after the Esso brigade has attempted to fight a fire and failed.

"We have had in recent years a fire on the Butyl Rubber (a synthetic rubber factory in the Fawley complex run by Esso ExxonMobil Chemical) where you could not see across the road in Hardley, the Steam Cracker (a refinery installation) fire that flared up again two hours later sending balls of smoke in the sky and a two-storey office block destroyed in zone two," he said.

He added that all those incidents were handled without a call to Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service.

He also suggested that calls for outside help were avoided because of the bad publicity which might result from the movement of numerous appliances.

But Esso and ExxonMobil Chemical's on-site manager Pete Laird insisted: "We will have no hesitation in calling the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service if the incident requires it."

He added that the company always worked closely with the county service and that its emergency plan was subject to independent scrutiny.

Regarding the fire on July 8, he said Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service was advised when the incident was in progress but there was no need to call them.

"Our firefighting had been extremely effective and there was no damage close to the fire," he told the meeting.

He also said that for that incident, the refinery had all the expertise and water it needed.