MALICIOUS callers who dial 999 for the fire brigade as a prank are now being tracked down with the help of mobile phone companies.

Hereford and Worcester Fire Authority has revealed that deliberate non-emergency calls to the number in the two counties fell by a third in the last three months.

The substantial decrease has been put down mainly to the authority's initiative of developing close contact with mobile phone companies.

Many malicious false calls are made from mobiles, and with the police's permission, firefighters can now have offenders' cut off.

"When someone makes a call, their number is automatically recorded, which makes it easy to identify the caller," said Alec Mackie, of Hereford and Worcester Fire Brigade.

"We can then go to whatever mobile phone firm it is and ask that they terminate that person's line."

He added that news was spreading that the fire service now had these extra powers and youngsters were frightened they could lose their number.

"Many false callers think they can remain anonymous, but we know exactly who they are by their number. They can run, but they can't hide any more," he said.

"Alternatively, if they are calling from a phone box, we now try to keep them talking long enough to get the police out to them."

Another way the authority is tackling the problem is through its fire safety teaching unit.

Specially trained teachers have been scouring schools in the area to teach the dos and don'ts of fire safety.

"We are at the forefront where education is concerned," said Mr Mackie.

"A lot of time is dedicated to teaching youngsters how to be safe - how to avoid fires and how, in the event of a blaze, to get out."

"But we also know some children do like to call 999 just to see a fire engine pull up. We have made a concerted effort to warn kids of the dangers of doing this on our school visits.

"This, combined with our relationship with mobile phone firms, will hopefully see the numbers of malicious calls continue to drop."

He said that prank calls could prevent emergency services from answering a genuine call and could claim lives as a result.