hoax calls

A Greater Manchester fire engine was involved in a road traffic collision responding to a hoax call

Hoax 999 calls cost the fire service nationally £84 million according to British Telecom, but even more importantly, they can cost lives!

In 2003, our Emergency Control Room received over 4,000 hoax 999 calls and we responded by sending a fire engine on every occasion. Through the knowledge, experience and training of our Control Room staff, we are now often able to identify when a call is a hoax. This means that we can make an informed decision whether or not we should send a fire engine. This approach has reduced the number of hoax calls which improves firefighter and public safety and ensures our resources remain available to respond to real emergencies.

Dangers of hoax calls

• In February 1998, a leading firefighter nearly lost his leg when the fire engine he was in crashed whilst en route to a hoax call in Moston.
• In August 2002, three firefighters from Wythenshawe were injured when the fire engine they were in overturned en route to a call at Wythenshawe Hospital which turned out to be a hoax

Tackling hoax calls
All 999 calls are traced and recorded. This information is then used to help catch the culprits. The fire service also collaborates with mobile phone providers and can request to have a phone disconnected. In 2006, this averaged 16 phones per month. This initiative is just one of a number of measures we are using to further decrease the number of hoax calls.

Education campaigns
Statistics have shown that hoax calls increase during the school holidays. To combat this, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service work hard around these times running education campaigns.

In 2006, hoax calls were played to nearly a million listeners on local radio station Key 103 and anyone who recognised the callers were encouraged to report them to Crimestoppers. Hoax calls were also played on the Key 103 website, as well as on the websites of the Bolton Evening News and the Tameside Advertiser.

Campaign results
In the months following the campaign a hoax caller from Bolton was caught and fined £2,000 which was made payable to Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Service to reimburse some of our costs. However, the same caller continued to make calls and was subsequently jailed.

Calls have though reduced significantly. Between March 2006 and Match 2007, 1,422 hoax calls were made to Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service compared with 2,822 for the same period the previous year – a reduction of 49%.