Police warn hoaxers after bogus alerts
Police have warned hoaxers they face prosecution after a flood of bogus calls stretched emergency cover on the first day of the firefighters' strike.
All areas were hit by an unusually large number of false calls within the first few hours of the industrial action.
Officers are warning those responsible they are putting lives at risk.
Military staff running the ageing fleet of Green Goddesses were taken by surprise by the number of hoaxes as the levels of malicious calls continued to rise.
The problem of bogus calls was worst in Scotland, with the busiest fire brigade area - Strathclyde - particularly badly affected. More than 230 malicious calls were made in the area during the first three hours of the strike.
All areas reported a number of hoax calls. In the North East 70 hoax calls were received during the first few hours of the strike.
In the Tyne and Wear and Northumberland brigade areas, more than 50 bogus 999 calls had been made by 8.30pm last night. In north Wales, a man made a hoax emergency call from a mobile phone 25 minutes before the national walk-out began.
The Green Goddesses in Camberwell, south London, were kept busy all evening by a flurry of calls, many turning out to be rubbish fires or hoaxes.
A spokesman for the Army says he's surprised how many hoax calls the temporary firefighters had been receiving.
In Northern Ireland the Goddesses - painted yellow to distinguish them from other military vehicles - were called out to a number of bogus blazes and suspected arson attacks.
