AT a time when the vital role of firefighters has been demonstrated beyond compare in America, it brings home with telling effect what a curse hoax emergency calls are.

For not only are lives and property placed in jeopardy when firemen turn out in response to a false call when elsewhere they may be needed to deal with a real crisis, as a fire chief observes tonight, their lives and those of others on the roads are placed at risk when crews are dashing to a fire that does not exist.

But although the dangers and sheer nuisance of malicious calls are manifest, it is disturbing that they are on the increase in Lancashire -- and that the explosion of mobile phone ownership may be contributing to this baleful behaviour.

For while closed-circuit TV surveillance is curbing the use of phone boxes for malicious calls, officers believe that behind the upsurge are youngsters who are now making the calls on mobiles from the comfort of their own homes, convinced they cannot be traced.

It is gratifying, then, that the same technology is being used to fight back against this menace. And, at the same time, the fire service and rescue service is abruptly disabusing the hoaxers of their belief that mobiles cannot be traced.

For it is sending out text messages to each phone from which a malicious or silent 999 call is received. As well as giving the caller a number to ring, it also warns that if the call was a hoax, further such calls will lead to disconnection of the phone. That is because the fire service is able to log the phone's number and, if, after the warning, the abuse is repeated, it can request the mobile's provider to disconnect it.

Also, the text messages are alerting mobile users who have made emergency calls by mistake and comes with follow-up advice from the fire service on how they can prevent this happening again.

Now, thanks to this intervention -- and the traceability shock it entails for hoaxers -- we can look forward to a reduction of the menace of false alarms, malicious and accidental, and the safety of lives and property in Lancashire being increased.