Firefighters will form picket lines outside Kingston, Surbiton and New Malden fire stations this afternoon, after taking the “agonising decision” to strike over a pension dispute.

They will walk out for four hours from noon.

Fire Brigades Union London regional secretary Paul Embery, said: “It is a sort of sad resignation for many of them.

“They don’t want to do it and it is an agonising decision to do it.

“There are going to be picket lines outside pretty much every fire station.”

The national strike will be coordinated from the FBU headquarters in Bradley House, Coombe Road, Kingston.

Only 27 fire engines will be on standby across London during the walk out.

Yusuf Timms, South West London FBU rep, said the FBU did not know how the fire engines would cover the London boroughs.

Last time they were based at Southwark, he said, one of the stations slated for closure, but this time they have been collected at a base near Croydon.

He said: “We don’t know how they are going to do it.

"They have said they are not going to use the fire stations. Whether they intend to give them all an area, they could just go [to areas in London] and hang around and mobilise by the radio.”