A fire crew sent to a 999 call involving a burning car on the M62 near Huddersfield today turned back en route so they could go on strike.

The U-turn meant it was 35 minutes before a reserve crew reached the scene causing huge tailbacks in both directions – and now at least one member of the Halifax crew involved faces disciplinary action.

The call came into control at 11.48am reporting a Ford Focus car on fire on the eastbound carriageway of the M62 between Junction 22 at Rishworth Moor and Junction 23 at Outlane.

The driver of the stricken car had pulled over onto the hard shoulder and off the carriageway as the fire took hold, completely engulfing the vehicle in flames and sending plumes of thick, black smoke into the air and billowed across the carriageway..

An investigation by West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service is now underway into the crew’s action with one member who has 26 year’s service being served with Level 3 disciplinary papers – which could ultimately see him being sacked. Other crew members could also face disciplinary action.

The fire which was reported to West Yorkshire Police at 11.52am caused serious disruption to motorists with one lane of the motorway closed while the incident was eventually tackled.

In a statement the brigade said: “This was prior to the commencement of the Fire Brigades Union strike (starting at noon) and as such an appliance from Halifax Fire Station responded.

“In anticipation of the Halifax crew requesting that they are relieved at the incident due to industrial action the contingency crew were made ready and were relocated towards the motorway.

“Whilst en route to the incident at 12.02pm the regular Halifax crew refused to attend the incident and returned to the home station.

“Contingency crews were then mobilised to deal with the car fire. The first appliance to the incident arrived approximately 35 minutes from the time of call.

“The car fire was effectively dealt with by the contingency crew who extinguished the fire and remained at the incident until the scene was safe.”

A spokeswoman for the service confirmed: “We are looking into the circumstances of this incident.”

The strike ran from noon until 2pm and will also be from 10.59pm until 11.59pm tonight. It is due to run from the same hours tomorrow too.

Fire Brigades Union secretary David Williams said: “The crew were quite right to take this lawful industrial action and I am outraged that the brigade is looking to discipline them.

“No-one was at risk, no-one was trapped and no-one was injured. We cannot have our members disciplined for taking lawful industrial action. We will fight it all the way.”

Already one firefighter has lost his job during the dispute. In January the man called his Hemsworth station manager a “scab”.

This latest series of eight strikes started on August 9 and are similar in nature to the previous industrial action which ended on July 21.

The FBU and Government are in dispute over its public sector pension reform programme, in particular proposals to introduce a new Firefighters’ Pension Scheme from April 2015 to replace the two current schemes which most operational personnel have joined.

During today’s strike action the fire service in West Yorkshire received 11 calls and attended eight incidents. No emergencies went unattended. Most of these included false alarms including one at Rockwood Rise in Denby Dale.