THE number of hoax calls made to the fire service has dropped by almost a half in the last five years, new figures reveal.

An investigation carried out by the Lancashire Telegraph has revealed the fire service is being called out to East Lancashire by fake callers at a much smaller rate since 2014.

That year, 150 calls were made to the fire service, with 108 being made in 2015, 81 in 2016, 82 in 2017, 83 in 2018 and as of September this year, 60 hoax calls had been made.

A hoax is defined by the fire service as a call made by people in order to bring out the emergency service to a place where there is not a fire or emergency situation.

The fire service said the falling number of public phone boxes and the greater use of mobile phones has had an impact in the decreasing number of calls.

Damian Stewart, a firefighter based out of Hyndburn Fire Station, said hoax calls have a big impact on the fire service.

He said: “A hoax call has the potential to increase the response times of firefighters attending a serious incident. If the local crew are dealing with a hoax call when a call comes in for a road traffic collision or persons reported fire then potentially a fire engine from further away will have to respond instead.

“Fortunately, these occurrences are few and far between but the consequences could be catastrophic. For me, when we respond to a hoax call, especially, where someone has stated that there are lives at risk, it is incredibly frustrating.”

A fire service spokesman said: “We are pleased that the number of hoax calls has reduced by nearly 50 per cent in five years.

“The reduction means that fire engines are more often available to go to a serious fire or road traffic collision and they won’t be elsewhere dealing with a hoax call.

“We will continue pushing the safety messages to school children and working with partners to ensure that this number is reduced even further.

“The service visits every primary school in the county and delivers fire safety packages which include focusing on the consequences of making hoax calls.

“We also work closely with North West Fire Control and the other emergency service to catch and bring to those who make hoax calls to justice.”