AN online petition to retain Wrexham's second whole-time fire engine has attracted more than 1700 signatures in just over a week.

The petition was launched after the North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority announced it was consulting the public about changes to its emergency fire cover.

Two of the three options include cutting the number of firefighters at its busiest station - Wrexham - from 52 to just 28 and axing the second whole-time fire engine.

A Fire Brigades Union Spokesperson labelled the potential cuts as 'dangerous' while campaigners have vowed to fight the proposals in Wrexham.

Plaid Cymru Councillor Becca Martin, who is spearheading the campaign to save the fire engine, has called on residents to make their feelings clear about the potential cuts in the area.

She said: "The strength of feeling about this issue is clear from the numbers signing the petition so far. Local residents value their firefighters and we understand that halving the numbers available to cover emergencies will put people at risk. 

READ MORE: 'Dangerous' firefighter cuts continue to be questioned in Wrexham

"It's important that we maintain the focus on keeping emergency fire cover in areas such as Wrexham, Deeside and Rhyl while improving response times in the Porthmadog, Corwen and Dolgellau station. The choices in the consultation do not do that - they're all about robbing Peter to pay Paul. 

"Two of the three options on the table involve losing more than one in eight of the entire service's firefighters. It's such a drastic cut that the quality of the service - especially the loss of experience and expertise that this would entail - must come into question.

"Losing the second fire appliance also means losing the expertise to crew specialist appliances based in Wrexham - the Ariel Ladder Platform, Technical Rescue Unit and Environmental Protection Unit. If full-time firefighters are halved as proposed, then who will be crewing these specialist appliances? Retained staff can't do that job."

To assist residents who are not familiar with the online petition, Cllr Martin is holding a street stall in the city centre on Saturday. 

The stall will take place between 11am and 1pm, with similar plans in place for outside the Racecourse in the coming weeks. 

She added: "We know this is an issue that affects every community in north Wales but it impacts most directly on Wrexham in terms of job losses and the increased risk to the public.

"It's been very useful talking to former firefighters who have approached me with their concerns for the future of the fire service. Years of underfunding in all our public services are now taking their toll - we can't afford to lose any more frontline firefighters and that's why we're going to put up such a fight to maintain services."