Dangerous Essex Chief Fire Officer David Johnson vowed yesterday to deploy a skeleton hotch-potch of scabs to fight blazes on New Year's Day rather than pay full-time professionals to do the job.

The £148,266-a-year boss was accused of jeopardising locals' safety as he smeared firefighters in the county joining a six-hour strike in England and Wales.

Mr Johnson has told Essex Fire Brigades Union (FBU) members not to bother clocking on for the rest of their shift when a six-hour walkout ends at 12.30am on New Year's Day.

The striking crews are among those battling a government attack on their retirement that will see contributions rise and pensionable age dragged up to 60.

Boasting that "resilience arrangements are extremely strong," Mr Johnson said he wouldn't use public cash "to pay firefighters to go to bed."

But FBU general secretary Matt Wrack warned that stand-in cover is "unreliable and has a very much reduced capacity to deal with emergencies."

He added that Mr Johnson's decision was "completely unnecessary and turns the lawful, six-hour national strike called by the FBU into a 15-hour period of significantly reduced 999 cover."

Chelmsford Trades Union Council secretary Malcolm Wallace predicted that the public would be on the side of the firefighters and condemned Mr Johnson's statement as "disgraceful."

Mr Wallace said: "It's bully-boy tactics - and it puts the lives of Essex people in jeopardy.

"He's got to rethink his strategy and he's got to put the interest of Essex people first.

"The public mood has always been with firefighters, whose contribution to our safety is very much respected."

Yesterday's outburst is just the latest controversy involving Chief Fire Officer Johnson, who received £31,581 in employers' pensions contributions in 2012-13 on top of his basic salary, £1,129 for private health insurance, and £28,000 in "special allowances."

The Essex chief was exposed in 2011 for claiming £20,000 in taxpayers' cash to do up his new home over the county border in Suffolk.

Expenses included £3,700 for carpets, £3,400 for flooring and more than £300 for posh Laura Ashley curtains.