A Royal Navy crew manning a Green Goddess fire engine today rescued a three-year-old child locked in a bathroom.

The emergency call came at 9.40am and the Green Goddess with its police escort was sent to Wilbury Road, Hove, where the sailors broke the door down to free the child.

Meanwhile, Tories claimed 12 modern engines not involved in the fire strike were lying idle in Sussex while Servicemen had to provide cover in the ageing Green Goddesses.

David Davis, Shadow Cabinet member responsible for the fire service, claimed they were among 443 modern engines, used as reserve vehicles or nationally for training.

There are six in East Sussex and the same number in West Sussex.

He urged the Government to use the vehicles to bolster the 50-year-old fleet of Green Goddess engines which are providing cover during the national fire strike.

The Fire Brigade Union's first 48-hour walkout ends at 6pm today but further eight-day stoppages are threatened, starting next Friday.

It was a relatively quiet night for Green Goddess crews in Sussex.

Biggest blaze of the night was a garden shed with two motorbikes inside ablaze in Malvern Close, Eastbourne. An electrical fault was blamed.

At 3am a Green Goddess attended a car accident on the A26 north of Ringmer. No one was hurt.

A retained East Sussex Fire Brigade crew from Pevensey dealt with a fire on a farm on the A259 near Bexhill at 5.25am.