THE number of malicious false alarms attended by fire services in Hampshire has almost halved in one year.

Official figures, which have not yet been formally released, show that in 2008 the county’s fire services responded to 265 malicious calls from the public – down from 505 the previous year and 612 in 2006.

Peter Cowmeadow, principal fire control officer for Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, said the reduction followed a concerted effort by control room staff to “challenge” calls they did not believe to be genuine.

Such challenges helped expose 656 malicious calls last year, which were “received but not attended”.

Staff were aided in this screening process by computer software that helps establish whether a caller is raising the alarm from the same location as the supposed blaze.

Mr Cowmeadow said: “Control staff are now very pro-active, to keep fire stations available for genuine calls.”

Anyone caught making a hoax call faces up to six months imprisonment and a fine of up to £2,000, as well as losing their telephone.

Separate figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government, show that the total number of false fire alarms attended by Hampshire’s fire service in 2008 was 7,746 – down from 9,565 the previous year.

More than half of the false alarms – 4,036 – were caused by automatic fire detection systems installed in commercial buildings, such as shops and factories, going off by mistake.