UNION leaders will decide today whether to call fresh strikes by firefighters in the New Year following the deepening rift with the Government which has dashed hopes of a breakthrough in the pay dispute.

The executive of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) is also expected to sanction the next eight-day strike from Wednesday, followed by a further eight-day strike from December 16 to Christmas Eve.

Relations between the union and the Government dramatically worsened during the weekend with both sides trading insults, leaving a settlement to the bitter pay row as far away as ever.

The Government made it clear it is prepared to stand firm for months rather than give in to the 40 per cent pay demand.

And despite a potential war in Iraq, Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram said the 19,000 troops standing in for firefighters during the strikes would continue to do so.

The stakes were raised when FBU general secretary Andy Gilchrist launched an angry attack against the Government during a rally in Manchester on Saturday.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott accused Mr Gilchrist of politicising the fire dispute by calling for New Labour to be replaced with "Real Labour" and questioning why £1bn had been set aside for war in Iraq.

Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford said he had warned the employers' negotiating team to settle in for a long dispute and that the Government was prepared for the deadlock to take months.

Kevin Gelders, chairman of the Teesside branch of the FBU, said accepting Government modernisation proposals would result in reduced fire cover and lives lost.

He said it was "very unlikely" the employers' negotiating team would come up with anything new to avert the second eight-day strike.

He described as "absolutely tragic" the death of pensioner in a house fire at Matthew Bank, Jesmond, Newcastle, less than an hour before the 9am deadline for the end of the first eight-day strike.

Firefighters left the picket line to join Army crews, police and ambulance personnel at the scene.

Mr Gelders said responsibly for fire deaths during the dispute rested with the Government. He said: "They have caused this strike. They are the ones who are putting pressure on the employers, giving them instructions.

"We don't want to be here. It means the Government is not only gambling with people's lives, they are openly raising the risk with plans to reduce the fire service as much as they are. They are more interested in their political aims than people's lives.

Meanwhile, the derelict Mecca bingo hall on Stockton High Street, devastated in an arson attack last week, will be demolished any day now.

Up to 80 soldiers were pulled back to safety, minutes before the building's roof caved in and a wall collapsed.

Firefighters had refused to leave the picket line to help because there were no lives at risk.