Fatalities warning as one in seven Galway Fire Brigade calls are hoaxes
New statistics reveal that the level of hoax calls to the Fire Brigade in Galway, which could have fatal consequences, are on the increase.
It has led to calls for a crackdown on pranksters making the hoax calls and putting lives at risk.
The Department of Environment has issued a breakdown of the level of prank calls or malicious phone calls made to the Fire Brigade in Galway.
The statistics, which are available for a five year period, reveal that the numbers of hoax calls to the emergency service numbers between 32 and 48 every year. The average level of hoax calls to the brigade in Galway stood at 38 but the trend is towards year-on-year increases in malicious calls.
The department said that in 2011, the most recent year for which data is available, some 282 calls were received by the Fire Service in Galway.
Of these, a total of 241 were legitimate, but some 14.5% or 41 calls, were described as “malicious” and hoaxes.
That’s a jump on the previous year when some 395 calls were received, and 48 of them were hoaxes (12%).
In 2009, there were 347 calls, of which 32 were hoaxes representing 9%.
The previous year there were 415 calls received and some 7.7% or 32 calls were malicious. And in the year 2007, some 409 calls were received and of these 7.8% were hoaxes or 32.
City Councillor Ollie Crowe said the statistics were alarming. Although the numbers of hoax calls mightn’t sound high, it still was almost one every week which was putting lives at risk and putting addition cost burdens on the local authority.
“Dummy calls to the Fire Brigade should not be tolerated and I hope that the Gardaí trace the perpetrators of the calls and pursue them vigorously through the courts. People should be aware of the dangers of hoax calls.
“Young people might think that they’re just having a bit of a laugh but there are very real consequences. If a Fire Brigade is out on a call that is malicious say in Mervue and a real fire happens in Salthill, the additional time it takes them to get to the real situation could be the difference between in life and death,” said Cllr Crowe.
The malicious calls situation in Galway is nowhere near as bad as in Dublin, where of the 1,300 calls made in 2011, more than 800 were hoaxes, which is 61%.
In Cork, 214 of the 712 calls made to the Fire Brigade was hoaxes, which represents 30%.
Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel