By By Adam Prestridge
During an emergency every second could mean the difference between life and death.
Atmore Fire &Rescue Department chief Gerry McGhee is all too familiar with emergencies and the dangers involved. He not only wants to ensure residents prompt service, but hopefully prevent serious injury or death.
On several occasions the past couple of weeks, rescue personnel with both Atmore's fire and police departments and local ambulance services have had trouble locating the homes of residents simply because no address numbers were clearly displayed on the home or mailbox.
"If somebody needs a fire truck or an ambulance and their address numbers are visible we can locate the house quickly," McGhee said. "If there are no numbers displayed we don't know where the house is."
McGhee said it is critical that emergency personnel locate the scene as quickly as possible.
"If somebody is having a heart attack or somebody's got a house fire, if they have a number on their home, we can find it a lot quicker than if they're not," McGhee reiterated. "If it's just a small fire and we can't find it, we need to know a number, it could become a bigger fire. We don't have any problem finding totally involved fires."
McGhee said that police, fire and ambulance personnel need your help before the emergency happens. He suggests that residents who do not have their homes clearly marked do so in case an emergency occurs.
Here are few tips McGhee suggests:
McGhee said street numbers can be purchased at your local hardware store. Reflective address signs may be purchased at the Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department.
Contact your local fire department for more information.