Attendance to unwanted fire calls is a major drain on fire service resources, with every appliance turnout costing taxpayers at least £200. The potential human cost in terms of endangering members of the public and firefighters as appliances rush to an emergency is also a factor which must be taken into account. In an attempt to filter out unwanted calls and cut down brigade attendance to such calls, Cheshire Fire Brigade has established a procedure for control staff to follow which allows them to challenge callers they suspect as hoaxers. This procedure, running in tandem with an advertising campaign aimed at driving down hoax calls, has led to a startling drop in the number of unwanted calls attended. In 1998, over three-quarters of hoax calls received were filtered out by control staff who decided that no attendance was necessary.
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