  |
Malicious calls to fire brigade
|
By Panorama Reporter
Chief Fire Officer, Luis Casciaro is aiming to raise public awareness on how malicious calls to the Fire Brigade can result in lives being lost.
As from the year 2000, the fire department began to keep records about the number of malicious fire and other emergency calls per year, with malicious fire calls being the most popular. Statistics show that 22 fire calls occurred in 2000, 18 in 2001, 21 in 2002, 29 in 2003, 20 in 2004, 24 in 2005 and 18 in 2006. Although this may not seem like much, fire officers argue that even one is one call too many. Although, nothing so far has happened when a malicious call has taken place, something devastating could easily happen as a result. For example,.Devils Tower Road and Winston Churchill Avenue are very busy areas, usually resulting in masses of traffic.
If the fire brigade are called to Both Worlds, which takes them about 8-10 minutes because of traffic and the call turns out to be a hoax, aside from it being frustrating it will take them ages to get back again especially if an actual emergency has taken place on the other side of the rock.
Due to the number of malicious calls they get, officers in the control room through experience have now learned to ask the right questions to tell whether the call is a hoax or not. It is those in the control room who judge the severity of the situation and sound the alarms, mobilising all fire appliances and ambulances. If needed, the fire brigade have means of tracing malicious calls and in many cases actually manage to catch the person responsible.
However it can be extremely difficult especially if the caller has rang from a pay phone. Once the culprit is caught, he is then taken into police hands and subsequently taken to court for committing this criminal offence.
All the fire officers take their jobs very seriously and act as a committed team, dedicated to their work. It is therefore very frustrating when a call that turns out to be a hoax comes through, as they would rather be safe than sorry. As difficult as it is to stop people making false calls, the number has dropped drastically since the 80s where the number of malicious calls was 40 a year.
Luis Casciaro humorously said that he put it down to people wanting to hear the fire alarms going off just for fun. However on a more serious note, someone else's fun could mean sacrificing another person's life.
The Fire Brigade receive around 6000 emergency calls per year and'although a very small percentage of that is a hoax there is still a massive risk of the hoax endangering other peoples lives. Luis Casciaro realises that it is very difficult to prevent people from doing this and he probably will not be able to. However he feels it is extremely important to raise public awareness and warn people of the dangers if their jobs are taken for granted.
|
|
|
|
