THE efforts of Spa firefighters to raise awareness of safety issues have backfired - with potentially dangerous consequences.

Following a blaze in Westlands last week, the town's crew delivered fire safety leaflets to houses on the estate.

But since the leaflet drop on Thursday, the Friar Street station has received several hoax calls and reports of malicious fires.

Station commander John Das-Gupta said: "During the past week, we've had about five incidents on the Westlands estate which appear to be related.

"Calls are coming from two public phone boxes in the area which are now being monitored."