Increase in Malicious Calls to JFB in 2023

The Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) is reporting an uptick in malicious or false alarm calls to the department in 2023.

This was disclosed by JFB Commissioner, Stewart Beckford, during a recent Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’.

He said the JFB responded to 1,220 malicious calls in 2022, adding that the number rose by 193 or 15.8 per cent to 1,413 in 2023.

“The Kingston and St. Andrew Division accounted for the largest number, that is 459; St. Catherine, 266, and St. James, 132. They were the top three divisions that received most of these malicious false alarm calls,” Commissioner Beckford informed.

In late 2023, the nation was captivated by reports of several bomb threats being reported at schools, government buildings and other organisations.

“A significant amount of that [15.8 per cent increase] had to do with the bomb threats that we were getting between October and November.

Between Friday and Monday, in one weekend in November last year, we would have responded to 45 such incidents,” Commissioner Beckford informed.

He pointed out that in some cases, the JFB was not able to respond to all the calls of bomb threats.

“What we witnessed was that there were multiple incidents being reported at the same time and if, for example, you have a division like Hanover with just one station and you have four or five incidents being reported, then you can imagine that there are some that we would not be able to respond to,” Commissioner Beckford stated.

It was also disclosed that over the past five years, there was a steady decline in the number of malicious reports or calls, with 2023 being the exception.