Local authority employers were today putting the final touches to a surprise last-minute pay package to increase firefighters' salaries to more than £25,000.

The move is seen as a desperate bid to avert an eight-day strike due to start at 9am tomorrow (Friday).

Leading negotiators were drawing up the package which would increase pay by 16 per cent from the present £21,500 to £25,000 outside London and £28,000 in the capital by this time next year.

Today West Yorkshire Fire Brigades' Union spokesman Mick Headon said: "This is the best position we have been in so far."

"Most firefighters would look at 16 per cent seriously but it depends how it is tied into conditions of service. Money is not the only issue now."

But he said he felt tomorrow's stoppage would still go ahead as terms of the deal had to be thrashed out by union chiefs.

"Right now I think the strike will still go-ahead - but hopefully not. There is a massive difference between a 48-hour strike and an eight-day strike. But the membership will see this through to the bitter end."

And Mick Goodwin, chairman of the Shipley station branch of the FBU, who is pictured with colleagues, warned: "If this new offer is as insulting as the last one then the public can expect to find us on strike tomorrow."

Any deal would be heavily tied to an agreement with the FBU on modernisation measures and would probably have to be sanctioned by the Government's spending watchdog the Audit Commission. Details of the package were being explained to a meeting of the full employers' body this morning in the hope negotiations with the union could resume today.

The employers would make no official comment last night but a source told PA News that an "absolutely exceptional deal" was being drawn up.

It is understood the initial payment would remain at 4 per cent but there would be staged rises over the next year, each one linked to modernisation.

The union is campaigning for a 40 per cent pay rise and has already rejected an offer worth 11.3 per cent over two years.

Officials softened their line following a 48-hour strike last week amid suggestions that an offer of about 16 per cent, taking pay to £25,000, would be enough to get talks back on track.

The initial four per cent would be back-dated to November 7 in return for "meaningful discussions" and pay would rise to the new rates only if the FBU agreed to "deliverable change".

But a huge gulf remained between the employers' idea of change and the union's modernisation proposals.

Many of the employers' recommendations were submitted to the controversial review into the fire service headed by Sir George Bain, which was angrily rejected by the union.

The employers said they were prepared to look at the union's proposals, which centre on measures to prevent fires and road accidents, rather than the employers' aim of ending the ban on overtime and changing shift patterns.

"Hopefully they will call off the strike, accept this is a fair offer and we can get down to talking," said the source. The office of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott stressed last night there was no extra money from the Government.

A spokeswoman said anything above the four per cent already offered for this year would have to be in return for modernisation of the fire service along the lines of recommendations in the Bain Report. But Mr Goodwin said some recommendations in the Bain report would put lives at risk.

"The Bain review proposes working practices which effectively leave less firefighters on duty at night, when people are most at risk resulting in longer response times and greatly reducing the chances of survival," he said.

Today West Yorkshire Chief Fire Officer Phil Toase warned that an eight-day strike could have dire consequences.

"Over the two-day period we did cope, but I think they are the correct words to use, we coped," he said. "Eight days is obviously a lot longer and the strain on everybody is a great deal more."

Senior surgeons in Bradford have been warned of the increased risk of having to carry out amputations on people trapped in road traffic accidents if the strike goes ahead.

Green Goddesses lack the cutting equipment normally carried by firefighters and this will lead to people in accidents being trapped for longer.

As part of detailed contingency plans being drawn up by Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust, operations directors will ensure consultant vascular surgeons, general surgeons, trauma surgeons and consultant anaesthetists, on call during any industrial action are available to attend accident scenes at short notice.

Mobile medical teams made up of experienced senior clinicians will be available to attend serious road accidents on a regional basis. Full contingency plans in the event of a fire service strike were presented to members of the Trust's board yesterday.