By Chris Ashmore
The Fire Service in Donegal is dealing with an average of four false alarms every week, it has emerged.
According to the latest figures for the first eight months of the year to the end of August, there were 139 false alarms, up marginally on the figure of 136 for the corresponding period in 2023. On an annualised basis, this works out at around 210 false alarms a year.
In most cases, the false alarms do follow genuine calls for assistance, but there are also a number of hoax calls.
Senior Fire Service personnel point out that these hoaxes, or malicious calls, not only are a waste of resources, but they can indirectly endanger the lives of others.
If a crew is out attending a hoax call, it could be at the expense of attending the scene elsewhere of a real emergency. Meanwhile the cost of running the Fire Service in Donegal will scale new heights in 2025, exceeding €11.5 million.