Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk

Rock Lane and Barn Lane, Bodmin at 09/12/2022 08:16

The first of three separate 999 calls were made by school-aged children reporting that a house was burning with a dog inside. Highly trained emergency operators, fearing a serious incident, tried to obtain an address but it became evident that the calls were hoax.

It is a criminal offence to make hoax calls to the emergency services and those prosecuted, can receive heavy fines or even a custodial sentence. It also wastes the time of BT 999 operators, emergency control room operators and emergency responders, that may not be able to respond to genuine emergencies, while dealing with a hoax call.

The calls today were made from Rock Lane and Barn Lane in Bodmin and clearly demonstrates that some children fail to understand that they must not misuse the 999 system.