The fire department receives 297,000 calls from pranks in 10 days

The fire department receives 297,000 calls from pranks in 10 days

More than 297,000 joke calls were received by the National Fire Service of Ghana (GNFS) between December 24th and January 2nd of this year.

On average, the fire department received joke calls from 4,000 different phone numbers and 29,700 calls daily during this time.

The Fire Brigade Fire Warden of Division II Divisional Officer (DOII), Ms. Joyce Ghansah, revealed this information to the Daily Graphic during an interview in Accra last Thursday.

A stuffing call, also called a crank call, is a phone call designed by the caller as a practical joke played on the answering machine. This is an unwelcome type of call.

Less than 10 minutes after the arrival of the Daily Graphic reporter in the main control room, about 30 calls of pranks were received.

Ghana News Titles

For the latest news in Ghana, visit the Graphic Online titles page
Ghana News Page

Proposals of love

Ms. Ghansah said that out of nearly 300,000 calls received during this period, only three were calls from people actually in distress.

She added that some joke callers had demanded call recharge cards, others had called to offer love to the female officers who answered the calls, others had planted insults on the officers, while another group had triggered false alerts.

She noted that public joke calls had become a major challenge for the GNFS, adding that sometimes the only option was to block the callers' phone numbers and prevent them from calling later.

Ms. Ghansah stated that they had been forced to apply such a measure – which would prevent an appellant from accessing a person if an emergency situation were to arise in the future – to free the lines for people who really needed help.

According to her, there had been many instances where the GNFS had sent out fire calls and officers only to find out upon their arrival at the premises that they had been laundered, pointing out that such incidents resulted in losses for the service.

Delay and inconvenience

Ms. Ghansah explained that the jokes were sometimes responsible for the firefighters' delays because they had to conduct an investigation to determine if a property was on fire or if an area required emergency badistance.

"We just do not know why people play jokes with a problem as serious as fire emergencies," she said.

"There was a time when someone called that a bank was on fire in Adenta. Fortunately for us, when the person spoke, an elderly person picked up the phone and told us that the person was lying.

In fact, we have almost sent fire offers. Imagine going from Osu to Adenta to waste gas.

The fire is a serious problem and I do not understand why people keep joking, "said Ghansah.

She added that people generally complained that they could not contact GNFS in case of emergency and explained that most of the time, it was because of many calls of jokes.

"We only have three consoles and when these people bother us constantly, the lines engage, making it difficult to transmit other calls," she said.

Master the situation

GNFS Public Relations Officer, DO II Ellis Robinson Okoe, said the situation was very worrying and had a negative impact on GNFS operations.

He added that the service worked with national security to follow the people involved in such activities.

"It's against the law and I'm sure when one or two people are sent to jail, it will deter others," he said.

Mr Okoe added that the GNFS had created the 122 as an emergency line, which would serve as an alternative phone number for people who could not join the main emergency lines.

It revealed that fire detection cameras had been installed in parts of Accra to help the GNFS monitor fire outbreaks as part of the new and innovative GNFS policies.