The stresses of violence, abuse and motorists' attitudes are being blamed for a drop in the number of firefighters becoming engine drivers.

Firefighters willing to undergo professional driver training and get behind the wheel of a ten-tonne engine are becoming harder to recruit, say their leaders.

Adrian Cornellissen, station commander at Idle fire station, said: "It is getting harder and harder to recruit drivers. I am having people come to me saying they have had enough of driving because it is too stressful, they have lost confidence or they want to fight more fires.

"Other motorists ignore us. Maybe they see so many people with blue flashing lights on vehicles that they don't bother to get out of the way. Drivers will not expose themselves to that stress and abuse. Our training school is trying to address this by putting on extra courses but as soon as firefighters are promoted, they do not then drive as part of their duties."

He said motorists with loud stereos did not always hear fire engines, people on mobile phones were not always aware of them and careless parking on narrow streets all caused problems for drivers. At some incidents, firefighters were pelted with rocks and roof tiles and even had rockets fired at them.

"In the next few years there will be a mass exodus of people leaving the brigade through retirement and many of the older ones tend to be the drivers," said Mr Cornellissen.

In the event of an accident in a fire engine, the driver is covered by the fire service's insurance but drives on his own licence.

"The argument for doing it this way is that if you drive on your own licence, you will take more care," said Mr Cornellissen. "We have had people being done for reckless driving. When the driver goes through a red light, he treats it as a Give Way.

"All these pressures add up and firefighters decide it is not worth it."

Andy Wood, station commander at the fire service driving school, said it was getting difficult to encourage younger firefighters to become drivers.

"The Fire Service is looking at ways of possibly financially rewarding those who become drivers," he said. "Maybe management needs to be more pro-active in how the job is promoted when new firefighters join. We have increased driver training courses and put more staff on to try to address the issue."

Steve Cawood, Fire Brigades Union branch chairman at Idle station, said: "There is a feeling that should you have an accident, the brigade isn't going to support you. That isn't necessarily reality, but it's the feeling drivers get.

"Management need to be more supportive of drivers who find themselves in difficulty because of an accident. If they could show they would provide legal back-up in that position, then I'm sure it would put drivers' minds at rest."