ESSEX FIRE and Rescue have announced that they attended more than 2,000 less incidents last year than they did the year before.

In the 12 months leading up to the end of March 2013 the Service had attended 14,081 incidents.

In the same period the year before they attended 16,139 incidents – a drop of 13%.

Calls to small fires in the outdoors dropped by 75% but calls to flooding were up by 151, both attributed to the increased rainfall the county saw last year.

The Service has also seen a drop in Hoax Calls.

In the 12 months leading up to February 2013 they dropped from 306 to 268.

Hoax calls are drastically down on those the Service was dealing with a decade ago; in 2003 ECFRS received 1,599 hoax calls.

Divisional Officer Neil Fenwick, Community Safety, said: “We are very pleased to see a drop in

incidents. We work very hard to make sure that people are as safe as possible and it appears that

this work is paying off.

“We will continue to do everything we can to make the people of Essex safer.

“We have also seen a significant drop in the numbers of hoax calls we deal with. Hoax calls are more

than a nuisance, they waste valuable resources and could potentially cost lives taking the time for fire

engines and crews who could be needed elsewhere.

“We actively monitor hoax calls to the Service on a daily basis and have computers working to flag

multiple hoax call offenders, these phones are then disconnected. We also work in close partnership

with premises across Essex where hoax calls are a problem to develop a strategy to combat this

socially unacceptable practice.”