THE front page story in last week's GUARDIAN about the fire service in Warrington made me very angry and sad for the fire service personnel who in this day and age still practice in this kind of conduct.

Would they like it if their daughters came home from work upset? I doubt it. There is no place anywhere for bigots who try to hurt and belittle the people they work with. These people should grow up and get on with their own lives instead of upsetting others.

In London young women firefighters are a sight seen every day. On one fire engine a crew was all girl and one male and they do a very hard job without people like these individuals. Recently in the city of Chester an old lady was brought back to life by an all-girl paramedic crew.

In other places like the USA they don't bat an eyelid at this kind of thing. Does it really matter about the colour of your skin, your sex or anything that the fire, police or ambulance crew are?

All that matters I think is that people who practice this kind of behaviour are brought to book and dealt with most severely.

I have great respect for the fire service but I cannot respect people like these who cause so much distress to their work colleagues. One day those same people might be on the receiving end. Hopefully in a few years' time it will be commonplace to have mixed or all female crews.

To all fire personnel everywhere, live and let live. Life is too short for making enemies of your work colleagues.

MARCUS BROMTE

Ship Street, Frodsham