House Numbers: How to Make Sure Emergency
Personnel Can Find Your Home
By
[http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=LeAnn_Ralph]LeAnn Ralph
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it with you .
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“You wouldn’t believe how many fire numbers and house numbers we
can’t see from the road,” said the ambulance director in my
hometown.
I was interviewing him for a story that would be published in
the newspaper by which I am employed.
I live in a rural area of Wisconsin, and instead of street
numbers, the houses are identified by fire numbers. The
addresses are the fire numbers and the particular road on which
the house is located.
My address, for example, is E6689 (the fire number) and 970th
Ave. (the road). For many years, rural addresses were on rural
routes (the farm where I grew up was Rural Route 2).
But nowadays, for the 911 system, rural addresses in this county
are identified by the fire number and by the street or avenue.
“Sometimes we have to double back and forth until we find the
address,” the ambulance director continued.
“There was even one house where you couldn’t see the number
unless you drove in the driveway and went up by the garage. They
had put the number on the side of the house away from the road,”
he said.
“If there’s an emergency,” the ambulance director concluded,
“you don’t want the ambulance or the sheriff’s department or the
fire department to spend extra time looking for your residence
because they can’t see the numbers.”
Indeed. Delays of 5 or 10 minutes could truly be a matter of
life or death.
To ensure that emergency personnel can find your home, consider
the following:
• If your fire number is located out by the road, check it
regularly to make sure bushes or tree branches are not covering
the number. If bushes and tree branches are coming close to your
fire number, trim them back or consider moving the fire number
to a more visible spot.
• If you have a house number, get in your car and drive past
your house. Are the numbers in a position where they can be seen
from the road? Are the numbers large enough to be seen from the
road? Are the numbers too weathered or faded to be seen from the
road? If your house number cannot be easily seen from the road,
move it to a better location. If your house number is too small
or too weathered to be seen from the road, replace the numbers
with new ones.
Following these simple steps will help emergency personnel find
your home. If you ever have an emergency, you might be glad you
did.
©2007 LeAnn R. Ralph
*************************
LeAnn R. Ralph is a reporter in Wisconsin. She also is the
author of books about growing up on a small family dairy farm 40
years ago. The Midwest Book Review calls this series of books
“Highly recommended reading!” You are invited to sign up for the
twice-monthly newsletter from Rural Route 2 --
http://ruralroute2.com
We find this article very interesting and we wanted to share
it with you .
Thank you for your
interest and we hope you enjoy this article.
by LeAnn R. Ralph http://ruralroute2.com
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