In 2007/08, South Wales Fire and Rescue Service attended 28,298 emergency incidents.  As some of these incidents generated more than one call, the Control Room handled 53,046 calls; that’s over 145 emergency calls every day. In addition to this there were more than 900 False Alarm Malicious calls in the last year.

Primary fires: these are the more serious fires, and involve property and/or casualties

Secondary fires: these are less serious fires, often outdoors and do not involve property or a casualty

Chimney fires: these involve occupied buildings but confined to the chimney and with no associated casualties

False alarms: these are categorised as:

• good intent (when an individual suspects a real fire and raises the alarm)
• malicious (hoax call) or
• automatic fire alarms (set off due to faulty equipment or fumes from cooking, steam, smoke etc)

Road traffic collisions: may involve firefighters using specialist cutting and lifting equipment to free trapped passengers

SSCs: other Special Service Calls (not including road traffic collisions) such as gaining entry and releasing people, animal rescue, lift release, water provision and removal, dealing with spills and leaks, assisting the police and ambulance