Page 49 - Red Alert

RED ALERT - HOAX CALLS

Newspaper report ACTIVITY
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Look at this newspaper report about hoax telephone calls. Luckily, in this case the Fire & Rescue Service were able to
catch the person who had made the telephone call. Use your computer to design the front page of a newspaper. The main
story should be about fire. You could write about someone catching a hoax caller or maybe you will be the hero of the story
having stopped vandals from setting fire to something. Think carefully about who will read your article.

FIREFIGHTERS If you can not use a computer, simply design
REEL IN HOAXER! the page using pens, pencils and a ruler.

By BEVERLY GREENBERG
A HOAX caller was caught were at a garden centre and there was no
red-handed - by angry Bolton trace of a blaze.
firefighters he had sent on a wild They radioed back to the fire control room
goosechase. and were told by the operator that she was
Two fire engines raced from the scene of a still talking to the man who had made the
bogus blaze to a street half a mile away fake callout.
where they had managed to track down the He was traced about half a mile away to a
malicious caller by using the latest technology. phone box on Derby Street. The crews sped
He was still speaking to the fire service’s there to find the hoaxer still chatting to the
control room in a telephone box in Derby operator.
Street when he was caught. Station Officer Pimblett said “The caller had
Firefighters trapped him in the phone box, given the nature of the fire as unknown so as a
then handed him over to police. matter of course we always send two crews out.
Switchboard “The fire operator had an inkling there was
Today fire chiefs warned other hoax callers something wrong so kept him talking.
that their days were numbered. However, these days we automatically trace
Station Officer Dave Pimblett said “The all calls made immediately, not only
latest technology we have on our because of hoax callers, but in genuine cases
switchboard means that all calls can be people can be confused and struggle to give
traced almost immediately.” clear addresses...”
Firefighters received the call to attend an ARTICLE REPRODUCED
address on Park Road, Bolton, at 11.30pm BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE
last night. BOLTON EVENING NEWS
But when they got there they found they

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