Firefighters will start voting on whether to go on strike over pay on December 5, with the result expected by the end of January, it has been announced.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) says it comes after a five per cent pay rise offer was rejected.
Notice of the ballot has been sent to fire and rescue service employers, said the FBU, adding that a formal dispute is now open.
It follows our previous reports about how fire service chiefs have been told to stump up £4,000 for each soldier to cover for striking firefighters.
The Home Office has drawn up plans to draft in the military if tens of thousands of 999 heroes walkout over pay.
But the troops will not be allowed to enter burning buildings or rescue people - after a crash training course of just four or five days.
And local fire services have been warned they will have to cover “all the associated costs” themselves.
That includes a £4,000-a-week estimated price for each member of military personnel - or £800 per person, per shift if there were five shifts in a week.
That far outstrips a typical firefighter’s salary of £24,000 to £32,000 a year.
If a national strike took place, it would be the first since action over pensions between 2013 and 2015 and the first on pay since 2002/03.
Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: "This is a historic ballot for firefighters and control staff. We are rarely driven to these lengths.
"Nobody wants to be in this position, but after years of derisory pay increases and a pay offer that is well below inflation, firefighters' and control staff's living standards are in peril.
"We have firefighters using food banks - we know that because FBU officials have had to sign off on members going to them.
"Firefighters and control staff worked throughout the pandemic and firefighters took on extra duties including moving the deceased. They have now been given a below-inflation pay offer.
"It is utterly disgraceful to call people "key workers" and then treat them like this.
"Strike action is always a last resort, but we are left with no other option. We asked for a pay increase that takes into account the cost-of-living crisis and did not receive it.
"The ball is still in the employers' and Government's court. We urge them to provide a decent pay offer and help bring this dispute to an end."
It comes as the UK is set to be plunged into a winter of discontent as hundreds of thousands of workers across all sectors of the economy are set to walk out in the coming weeks in a devastating wave of industrial action.
Nurses, civil servants, postal workers and charity staff are among those set to down tools in a bitter winter of discontent.
Spiralling inflation and a cost of living crisis - leaving staff reliant on food banks - has piled misery on millions of Brits who have decided enough is enough.
Rishi Sunak told Cabinet members this week that the coming months will be "challenging" as services grind to a halt due to pay disputes.
And train workers have announced another eight gruelling days of action, disrupting two whole weeks - one just before Christmas and one just after.
