Over 200 false fire alarms a month
The Bulawayo emergency services attend to more than 200 false fire reports monthly and spends more than US$10 000 on these wild -goose chase errands.
The city is struggling to collect garbage, fix overflowing sewers, repair roads, rehabilitate infrastructure, clear vegetation along roads and maintain a consistent clean water supply among other challenges yet is wasting resources attending to false reports.
In an interview, Bulawayo acting chief fire officer Mr Linos Phiri said false alarms are now a cause for concern as a lot of resources are being wasted attending to false reports.
He said the department was wasting fuel and paying overtime to workers as most false alarms come after hours.
Mr Phiri said it is difficult to tell whether a fire call is a prank or genuine hence the emergency services attend to all calls.
He appealed to residents to be responsible as the resources wasted on false alarms affected them as the owners of the city.
Mr Phiri said property may be burnt to ashes or people may die in a fire while available fire engines are attending to non-existent fires just because someone thought it would be funny to mislead emergency services.
He said the fire brigade uses approximately 2 000 litres of fuel weekly and close to 100 000 annually to attend to calls.
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