I guess some people get a perverse pleasure from making false reports to volunteers.

Have had a few beauties in my time, though.

One classic was a report by a motorist that they had seen flames as they drove past a mango orchard not far from my place. Two units raced to the scene and found a stack of orange fruit crates in the orchard with just a bit of smoke haze from fires far to the east. This person panicked at the sight of something orange with a bit of smoke haze in the air, didn't stop to check and didn't twig that there was no smoke coming from the "fire". We got an apology for this callout.

Another classic turned out to be the orange glow from the setting sun. The person who gave that alarm meant well, but was a serial offender and has now left the area.

Other callouts are for smoke coming from fires in Arnhem Land, or for fires that are very, very far away and of no concern.

On more than one occasion, I or other fire fighters have had to leave a fire ground to race off to another reported fire, only to find that someone has reported the fire we were already fighting, but in a different location.

If you clearly see a fire that is threatening property report it immediately. If it is some distance off take your time to have a good hard look at it, estimate how far away from you and its location. How much smoke is it putting up and is it heading away or toward you? Then report it. If you can make out red and blue flashing lights around the fire, it means we are already there.

Firies can waste a lot of time looking for fires because of poor directions. Visibility is limited in heavily timbered country and smoke columns can be difficult to see, especially if they are dispersed by winds.

We respond to all callouts and take this in our stride, even though they burn up a lot of fuel at the expense of our limited budgets. We would rather be called out  for something that turns out to be a non event than to have someone see a fire and not call us at all.

But we hate malicious false alarms.