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Farnham fire crews were unable to respond to emergency calls for 90 minutes on Monday due to a staff shortage.

A source from Surrey Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), who did not wish to be named, claimed the situation arose when a firefighter went home sick and fire service chiefs refused to pay £20 in overtime for a replacement.

The source also claimed that another firefighter, who offered to step into the breach without payment, was turned down for ‘insurance reasons’.

“Many Farnham residents don’t realise that although they are paying the same council tax, they are getting a much-reduced fire service,” the source said.

In a bid to make budget cuts, SFRS introduced a new policy on January 1 reducing crews from five firefighters to four, the minimum required to operate a fire engine.

After the crew member fell ill on Monday at around noon, his colleagues asked service headquarters for a firefighter to be drafted in but were refused as this would involve paying overtime.

Instead, one of Guildford’s two fire engines was sent to the town with a crew to provide emergency cover until Farnham’s night watch crew arrived at 6pm.

The Guildford crew was sent home at 4.30pm, in what the source said was another attempt to avoid paying overtime, leaving Farnham short-staffed for 90 minutes.

During this time, any emergency calls from the Farnham area would have been diverted to Guildford or Camberley fire stations, although it is understood no calls were actually received.

A member of Farnham’s night watch, who had arrived at the station early on Monday, offered to step in free of charge to bring the day crew up to its four-man quota but was told he was not insured for any other watch.

The incident comes just a week after the Surrey Fire Brigade Union warned that efforts by SFRS to save £2.6 million in 2015/16, and make £5.9m worth of savings by 2019 , had placed an increasing strain on the service.

Union secretary Richard Jones said: “It is the difference between rescuing casualties and pulling out bodies. We’ve been suffering cuts, year on year, and they have stepped up massively. We are expecting it to get worse.

"All the cuts are coming out of the front line and we are finding a lot of occasions where there are not enough crew.

"It’s a lottery because if you have to shut a station for a shift and an incident happens in that place, then the appliance has to come from further away. It is a high risk for the public and firefighters alike. It’s bad news all round.”

A SFRS spokesman said on Wednesday: “Due to the restructuring of our crews that has come from huge budget pressures, there has been a couple of occasions where we have been short-staffed.

“However, we have been transferring staff to these stations to ensure all areas of Surrey are kept safe.”