Fire hoaxers jail threat

By DION TEASDALE
FIRE hoaxers have been warned they could be jailed after a false alarm at Upper Yarra Secondary College.
Last week’s hoax has been slammed by the CFA and the school’s principal as a waste of valuable community and emergency service resources.
CFA Region 13 operations officer Darren Treloar said a call alerting the CFA to a fire at Upper Yarra Secondary College was received at 9.20am on Friday, 12 August.
“Two brigades responded immediately to the call. Yarra Junction brigade responded with two appliances and Launching Place sent one,” he said.
“The three trucks and approximately 20 fire fighting personnel arrived at the school within eight minutes of the call.”
Mr Treloar said officers downgraded the fire alert upon arrival at the school and declared the call a hoax at 9.33am after failing to find any fire emergency.
“Acts like this incur significant cost to the community and are a waste of our emergency service resources,” Mr Treloar said.
“Hoax calls divert emergency services away from legitimate emergencies and drag volunteers away from their places of work and prevent them from making a living.”
Mr Treloar said there were serious repercussions for people found to be initiating hoax calls.
“There are heavy fines and possible jail terms for offenders who are apprehended,” he said.
Upper Yarra Secondary College principal, Brian Way said people making hoax calls should not be tolerated.
“It is an absolutely stupid waste of community resources and endangers people’s lives,” he said.
“I hope the people who have done this have enough intelligence to work out it isn’t the right thing to do.”