Commuters have been urged to take care during the morning and evening rush-hours in the coming week as firefighters prepare for eight days of industrial action in their row over pensions.

The walkouts start tomorrow (Monday) from 6am to 8am, then again from 5pm to 7pm, and will be repeated every day until Friday (July 18), when the evening strike will take place later from 11pm to 1am on Saturday (July 19).

There are due to be three further strikes over that weekend, before another on Monday, July 21 from 6am to 8am and 5pm to 7pm.

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service chief fire officer Graham Stagg said: “We urge residents across the county to take extra care to help reduce the chances of a fire or road traffic collision happening.

“As a majority of these upcoming strikes take place over the morning and evening rush-hour, please take extra care on the roads; slow down, drive to the conditions and be considerate of other road users.

“The strike are also happening at times when households will be busy cooking breakfast or dinner in their kitchens, so do take extra care and never leave cooking unattended.

“As a service, we intend to provide a similar level of cover to the previous strikes, however, these short strike periods will mean the disruption to our day to day work will be substantial.”

The Government appealed to the Fire Brigades Union to call off the strike and revised its proposals for changes to firefighter pensions.

But FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said the changes did not go far enough and called for urgent talks.