Fire crews called out to rescue person trapped in Southsea property - but it was a hoax
FIRE crews were called out to a blaze where a person was thought to be trapped inside a property - but it turned out to be a hoax.
Southsea and Portchester firefighters attended a property in Waverley Road, Southsea, at 1.32pm to rescue a person before discovering their time had been wasted.
Portchester fire station took to Twitter to warn people of the dangers of making hoax calls - with one person recently dying as a result of such a call.
The post said: ‘Mobilised to a fire persons reported in Waverley Road, Southsea. This turned out to be a hoax. These calls tie up valuable resources which could be attending genuine incidents.’
Meanwhile, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS) revealed hoax calls are a serious problem for the service.
In advice on its website, HFRS said: ‘(We) attend in the region of 25,000 incidents per year. However, our Command and Control Centre receives in the region of 45,000 ‘999/112’ calls per year but some of these can be repeat calls or calls that have a non-emergency element.’
The message continued: ‘Every day the control room receives hoax calls, reporting incidents that do not exist.
‘These calls commit fire engines to incidents that do not exist, thus placing genuine callers lives in danger, as fire cover in the county is reduced.
‘A life was lost in a fire in Southampton when the nearest fire engines were attending a hoax call. In a fire situation seconds can cost lives. It also puts the responding firefighters at risk whilst travelling to hoax calls.’
HFRS said hoax calls from landlines can be traced while all calls are digitally tape recorded - with offenders opening themselves up to prosecution.
‘In the case of hoax calls these details can be passed to the police for prosecution. (HFRS) will issue text messages to mobile telephone callers making such a call warning them that, if they persist, their mobiles can be cut off,’ the advice added.
‘Should multiple hoax calls be received from mobiles, HFRS control staff will contact the network provider and ask them to cut the mobile off so that it will not be used to make any calls.’