Avon Fire & Rescue Service has been criticised for spending £11,000 in one year on operating a hot air balloon promoting fire prevention.
The balloon, the only one being used by a fire service in the country, was on show on all three days of the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta last year and was also airborne at school and community events in 2008.
The fire service, which spent £13,000 on the canopy in 2007, says it uses the balloon to spread messages about fire safety.
On Wednesday, the balloon was flown across Bristol bearing the message 'Working smoke alarms save lives'.
But Bristol city councillor Spud Murphy, who is a member of the Avon Fire Authority, believes the balloon is a waste of money.
He says that along with the service's hovercraft based in Weston-super-Mare and its rescue boat based in the Floating Harbour, the balloon is one of 'the toys for the boys'.
Conservative Coun Murphy said: "It's a waste of rate payers' money when you see that the fire service precept on the council tax has gone up four per cent.
"They didn't need to buy the balloon. It's just something they can use to take people up for a rides in. The things they do make me mad - no other fire service in the country has a balloon."
While the large balloon carries the fire service's logo in red, a white stripe below it will feature changeable messages. The messages reflect trends in fires the brigade attends.
Funding for the balloon, which was made by Bristol-based Cameron Balloons, comes from the brigade's own community safety budget.
It costs £1,000 a day to fly, which pays for a pilot, basket and gas to inflate and fly it.
When the balloon was first launched in 2007, deputy chief fire officer Jerry O'Brien said to buy the balloon and then fly it would cost less than attending four car fires – which the brigade often does in a day.
A spokeswoman for Avon Fire & Rescue Service said: "Hot air balloons are a proven marketing tool used to raise awareness of organisations and their messages to thousands of viewers.
"It is a cost effective way of getting safety messages out to large numbers of members of the public who travel into the city centre every day.
"Using the hot air balloon to reach out to the local community offers a cheaper alternative to advertising in local newspapers, as it attracts a great deal of attention and is very visible, potentially being seen by hundreds of thousands of people during its short flight."
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