A MERCY trip by a team of East Lancashire firefighters was hanging in the balance today as travel plans were thrown into chaos by the threat of war.

The crew, who are all based at Burnley fire station, were due to leave for Bosnia next week to help restore the country's war-torn fire and rescue service next week.

Two officers from Darwen and one from Chorley have already left and a total of 35 have taken part since the charity began operating eight years ago. The five from Burnley who were due to set off next week to help train firefighters in the former Yugoslavia are Shaun Faraday, Steve Howarth, Wayne Dowell, Fiona Thompson and Peter Kelly.

It is now unclear how they will get there as they would normally have been flown over by the military.

But, because of the uncertainty of war in the Gulf, they have been told the flights are not available.

Plans to travel across land in the second-hand fire engines they have bought for the country are now being looked at instead.

But this could mean the departure date is now likely to change and the original volunteers, who had all taken leave to embark on the two-week trip, may also have to change.

Chairman of the charity Operation Florian and the man who organises the trips is Mick Doherty, station officer at Bamber Bridge fire station near Preston.

He said: "We are aiming to provide good quality firefighters for the country where the infrastructure has never really existed and we are also trying to bring together different races as we train Muslims, Serbs and Croats together."

The training exercise is part of a UK res- ponse, called Operation Florian, to help alleviate suffering in the war-torn territories of the former country under the auspices of the UK Fire Service Search and Rescue Team.

The volunteers buy second hand fire engines in this country and transport them across to Bosnia so they can train up fire crews over there.

Fire crews from Lancashire have led the way in volunteering for the scheme although firemen from all over the country have taken part.