Facts and Figures 

Every year South Wales Fire and Rescue Service attends nearly 600 hoax calls.  Many of these are made in the summer months. The shocking fact is that many of these 999 calls are made by adults.

However, the number of hoax calls being made to the Fire and Rescue Service also increases during the Summer holiday period, indicting that many of these calls are still be made by school children

Hoax calls, or ‘False Alarm Malicious’ calls as they are known in the Emergency Services, are a criminal offence and repeat offenders can be fined or even sentenced to prison.

From January 1st 2010 – 31st December 2010 SWFRS took 2151 hoax calls. 420 of these were challenged by Control staff and didn’t result in attendance by Fire Crews, 1193 were abandoned calls. However, of the 538 hoax calls which did result in an attendance by the Fire and Rescue Service 159 (30%) were made during the Summer holiday period*. (01/06/10 to 10/08/10)

Since January 1st 2011 SWFRS has taken 1225 hoax calls. 334 of these were challenged by Control staff and didn’t result in attendance by Fire Crews, 617 were abandoned calls. However, of the 274 hoax calls which did result in an attendance by the Fire and Rescue Service 83 (29%) were made during the Summer holiday period** (** 01/06/11 to 10/08/11)