FIREFIGHTERS in the region claimed last night they are ill-equipped to deal with a terrorist attack - and described equipment and training as like something out of Dad's Army.

Nearly 18 months on from September 11, union leaders said they have yet to see any extra equipment promised as part of a £56m Government cash injection to help fire crews cope with "worst case scenarios".

The claim came as a leaked fire service document revealed only basic preparations for a chemical or biological attack.

The advice document - issued to Cleveland Fire Brigade crews in September - said that there were "no mitigation facilities and equipment available nationally" and that fire crews would have to rely on existing equipment.

It also described ad-hoc plans to construct mass decontamination showers, consisting of two fire engines parked together with a ladder across the top to which hose reels are attached and used to spray water on to casualties.

Last night, Steve Gregg, regional chairman of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), said: "The state of defence preparedness is absolutely shocking. We are extremely concerned.

"The only equipment we've been given is a couple of bottles of disinfectant, sponges and mops. We've been given no specialist equipment or training yet. It really is a Dad's Army operation."

John Eldridge, editor of Jane's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence, said: "Most emergency services are relatively poorly equipped to deal with the kind of terrorism we are now looking at.

"I imagine that the Government thinks these decontamination showers are going to be used for civilians, but they are in fact designed to deal principally with people who are already in protective suits.

"They are quite limited and only of any use against liquid or solid matter, not vapour hazards.

"There are also other issues to consider, such as will you have the space needed to construct one of these things?"

Alan Blacklee, Cleveland branch secretary of the FBU, said firefighters were "very, very concerned" at the present state of affairs.

He said: "At the end of the day, if someone dropped a dirty bomb on something the size of Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium, we are the people who will get there first, and we haven't got the training or the equipment to deal with that amount of decontamination.

"It is more than a year-and- a-half since the terrorist attack on September 11 and nothing has been done."

Last night, a spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said that 190 purpose- built decontamination units and 4,000 extra gas-tight suits would be rolled out to brigades across the country as part of the £56m investment, by late spring.

But it comes in the face of a Government emergency working party which, in the aftermath of the Twin Tower terrorist attacks in America, put the cost of providing specialist equipment, extra staff and training to deal with a terrorist strike at about £280m.

The spokesman said the £56m injection for the fire service included 80 new vehicles and that the investment was "an ongoing process".

Cleveland Fire Authority chairman and Middlesbrough councillor John Jones said: "If the unions have any worries, we want to debate and discuss that with them."