ALMOST half the emergency calls to fire crews in Gwent are hoaxes, new figures released today reveal.

And South Wales fire chiefs are warning that lives could be lost as vital resources are wasted attending bogus call outs.

A fire crew in Gwent attended a false call every day last year, costing tax payers over £150,000.

And BT, which handles the initial 999 calls, say more than half of the calls they receive are "inappropriate" and a further 40 per cent of those which are then put through to the emergency services turn out to be false.

That could mean up to 10,000 false calls are received by the fire service every year claiming to be reporting incidents in the Gwent area.

Thousands of these are 'challenged' by trained control room operators but fire crews in Gwent still attended 370 hoax calls last year.

Senior Divisional Officer Ray Jones said: "Hoax callers are not only a huge drain on resources but their thoughtless behaviour endangers the lives and safety of the public as a whole.

"If firefighters are responding to a hoax call they may be delayed in responding to a genuine emergency incident such as a house fire or road traffic accident - and it may be the caller's family or friends in real need."

With children and youths believed to be responsible for most of the calls, local fire crews have been visiting schools in recent weeks educating youngsters about the dangers of making hoax calls.

Officer Jones said: "We only have so many fire engines and if they are tied up dealing with hoax calls we have to pull resources in from further afield. "This means that our crews have to travel further and for longer periods of time to get to the genuine calls and this delay could have disastrous consequences." And he warned that responding to emergency calls put road users and fire officers at risk.

"Responding to incidents is not an easy task and our drivers are very well trained to enable our crews to get to genuine incidents as safely and as quickly as possible.

"But because we respond to all calls for assistance these hoax callers put fire crews and other road users at risk by calling us out when there is no need."

And he warned that the fire service and police have the technology to trace all calls.

"All calls can be traced instantly and the caller's voice can be recorded. These are then passed over to the police.

"This doesn't just apply to landlines and phone boxes; mobile phones can also be traced and disconnected as a result of time-wasting calls." And he urged anyone who has information about people making false calls to contact Crimestoppers confidentially on 0800 555 111.