A BID to downgrade Ongar fire station to part-time 'lifeboat' status has sparked a blazing row with residents.

Inflamed locals are organising petitions throughout the 12 parishes in a last-ditch attempt to prevent a proposed reallocation of resources.

Central to the proposal is a policy focused on "community fire safety" preventing fires rather than tackling them.

It also depends heavily on past call-out figures that are themselves disputed since they involve substantial disparities.

The proposal calls for full-time firefighters to be axed and replaced by trained part-timers, the same system that operates in Epping.

Assistant chief fire officer Roger Walsh told a public meeting last week that a minimum of nine part-timers would be needed for retained cover. These would be supplemented by full-time firefighters from other stations to meet any operational shortfall.

But Ongar sub-officer Paul Brannagan said there were difficulties recruiting and retaining part-time crews because of the commitment level.

"For a great part of your life you can't be more than four minutes from your fire station," he said.

He said that between October 2002 and September last year Leaden Roding's fire engine was off the road 41 days and Thaxted's for 87 days because of a lack of crew.

The downgrading would be "premature, ill-thought-out and potentially dangerous," he said.

Stark differences emerged at the meeting over Ongar's callout figures.

Mr Walsh claimed that the average number of calls over the three years between April 2000 and March 2003 was 248, rising to 359 when incidents for which Ongar covered crews elsewhere were included.

But the station's log book shows 562 calls last year.

The meeting in Budworth Hall heard calls for an improved rather than reduced service, prompted by the prospect of increased housing in the area.

This includes possible developments on the comprehensive school site and the former Four Wantz council depot, the likelihood of some 11,000 new homes in the Epping Forest district and a second Stansted runway.

Councillor Doug Kelly said: "If we allow this thin end of the wedge, we're going to see the same thing that's happened time and time again the resources will be moved elsewhere.

"We all moan when we have to pay more council tax, a percentage goes to the police and fire service, but let us have the service we're entitled to."

MP Eric Pickles will present the petitions including one in Ongar that already has 4,000 signatures to the House of Commons and hopes to get an adjournment debate so the issue can be raised with a minister.

The option of a parish poll giving Ongar electors the chance to vote on the issue in a ballot that has no legal weight and would cost the parish council £2,000 was not proceeded with.

The meeting felt a concerted effort to get more names on petitions and letters written to fire chiefs would be a better move.

Consultation ends at the end of January with a report due before Essex Fire Authority in March. If approved, the changes will happen in April.