Chief Officer John Bonney said: "Today is a tragic day for Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service. It is with deep, deep sadness that I announce the death of two Hampshire firefighters.

"At this time I can now confirm the names of those two firefighters who sadly lost their lives while attending a devastating fire in Southampton.

"Firefighter James Shears, 35 and firefighters Alan Bannon, 38 tragically lost their lives whilst tackling a fire at a block of flats.

"Both were whole time firefighters and members of Red Watch at St Mary's fire station in Southampton.

"James had been with the service for just under seven years and Alan for eight and a half years.

"We are devastated by the loss of our colleagues, who died in the line of duty. Our thoughts are with their families, their friends and with their colleagues, who have all been stunned by these events.

"I would like to pay tribute to the courage, dedication and service of those firefighters. This tragic incident is another tragic reminder of the danger that emergency services put themselves in day in, day out to ensure the safety of the public.

"I would now like to provide you with some details of the incident last night. At 20.14 last night, Tuesday 6, April our control operator was alerted to a fire a Shirley Towers in Church Street Southampton.

"The fire started in one of the upper flats in flat 72 of the 15 storey blocks "A total of 20 fire appliances and supporting vehicles were mobilised to the incident from stations across the county.

"All the residents living in the affected flats were successfully evacuated or rescued by firefighters at the scene.

"Unfortunately while carrying out their professional duties two Hampshire firefighters have lost their lives.

"This is an incredibly difficult and sad time for the families and for HFRS and our thoughts and prayers are with them all.

"At this point we are liasing with the families and offering them all the support we can.

"A further two firefighters suffered minor burns at the scene.

"At this stage is it not appropiate to speculate about the circumstances surrounding this devastating incident but a joint investigation has been launched in conjunction with Hampshire Constabulary.

"I would also like to pay tribute to the other emergency services that attended with our colleagues and supported us during this very difficult incident.

"Also to Southampton City Council who have been supporting us and the residents in the block since the incident.

"And my final thanks to the community who have already expressed their grief, sorrow and tributes to those men that served them."

Giving further details of the blaze, Mr Bonney said it was not yet known whether ''something went wrong''.

He added: ''Their first concern was the safety of the public and their second concern was the safety of their fellow crew members.

''I think it is a tribute to them that we saw such a deployment and there was some very valiant behaviour that night.''

He said he could not go into the circumstances of the fire at this stage.

He added: ''As you can appreciate, this is subject to a joint investigation between ourselves and the police. We would hope to release details at some later stage.

''You have to understand that we sit here today with the wonderful opportunity of hindsight. My firefighters, who are highly trained, who are well-equipped and who are incredibly professional, will have been tackling an incident that they did not know the details of.

''Whether something went wrong, we will discover in due course and if there is something that went wrong then we will address that.

''At the moment, what they did was they were protecting the public under incredibly difficult circumstances.''