The worrying state of Kent’s fire service was revealed today as nearly half our crews went out of action.

Confidential up-to-the-minute figures obtained by KentOnline show 39 of the county’s 88 engines couldn’t respond to an emergency at 10am.

Thirty of those were grounded because of "insufficient crew", six were listed as "off the run" and the final three were "defective".

A further 24 were listed as likely to have a delayed response – meaning only 25 of Kent’s 88 engines were ready to go out.

Many of those were due to the station being staffed by retained firefighters or crews attending training exercises.

Today’s snapshot showed engines at Sandwich, Swanscombe, Cliffe, Hoo, Halling Chatham, Gillingham, Teynham, Queenborough and Eastchurch couldn’t be manned this morning.

Two of Larkfield’s three appliances were off the run and Hawkhurst, Tenderden and Swanley had insufficient crew.

Fire engines at Canterbury, Faversham and Thames-side were defective.

Insiders claim this is typical and blame budget cuts and lack of recruitment for putting the public at risk.

But Kent Fire and Rescue Service said the crews were ready to respond to any emergency.

It added that responses are managed on a county-wide basis - not from local stations.

Guidelines mean at least four firefighters are needed before an engine can respond.

A recently retired firefighter, who did not want to be named, said: "Because not enough people have been recruited we don’t have enough to run the engines.

"It means in some areas it could take 20 to 25 minutes for an engine to turn up.

"If you live on the Hoo peninsula for example, because Hoo and Cliffe are closed the nearest appliance is probably Strood.

"If you’ve got a house fire that means by then you could be dead. They are playing with people’s lives here."

A report out before Christmas revealed Kent Fire & Rescue Service needs to save £16m over the next four years.

Efficiency cutbacks mean 40 admin jobs are set to go – but no compulsory redundancies will be made.

The service is currently running 66 stations across the county - 13 are manned 24-hours and the rest either between 6am and 6pm or by retained firefighters.

A spokeswoman for KFRS warned a shake-up of fire service contracts is needed to ensure full coverage for the county.

She said: "This illustrates why we are having to change the retained duty system, which was set up over 50 years ago.

"The move is good news for the safety of the public as it means for the first time we can be 100 per cent sure we have crew available to get fire engines on the run when and where they are needed.

"Under the current system retained firefighters choose themselves when they are available for duty on an hour by hour basis.

"As a result, many retained fire engines are frequently not available for use during the day, as we need a minimum of four firefighters to crew one.

"Under the new contract retained firefighters will be paid an annual salary for pre-agreed, guaranteed hours and in return, when they receive a call to an incident they will be contracted to turn out.

"Other benefits include improved terms and conditions and the reassurance that all of our firefighters do enough hours to complete essential safety training.

"Other reasons why a fire engines might not be available are that firefighters are already out dealing with a fire, recharging equipment immediately after an incident or training.

"However, because we have excellent, minute by minute data, our 999 control centre constantly monitors all of this activity, and it is their job to make sure they pull in other engines, with the right specialist equipment, to cover any gaps.

"This means we can always have good emergency cover across the whole county.

"We need the public to understand that we run a complex operation that is delivered on a countywide basis, not from the local station."