Public Safety Note from your friends at the Church of the Ascension

Yep, we’re back with more know-it-all information for your safety and well being.  Weed abatement is well under way so, turning our thoughts to another area of safety, it’s not a bad idea to make sure our homes and properties are identified well enough to be quickly located by emergency crews.  Law enforcement, fire fighters and medical responders have the necessary equipment to locate us but use of it is time consuming, taking minutes when every second counts.  More often than most people realize, citizens calling 9-1-1 often scream at the dispatchers to “hurry, hurry, get somebody here now!”  Hurrying is easier said than done if there are no visible house numbers posted.

According to Calaveras County Code title 8 Health & Safety, chapter 8.10 Fire & Safety Resolutions the following rules apply to property identification (paraphrased, for additional guidance please refer to the code): 

Size of letters/numbers:  Minimum three inches in height, ¾ inch stroke, reflectorized, contrasting with background color

Addresses must be approved by the building official.  Emergency responders and dispatchers have access to maps by address.  If the address is not approved, it won’t appear on the map.

Each dwelling within a building shall be separately identified.

All buildings shall have a permanently posted address placed at each driveway entrance, visible from both directions of travel, even on one-way roads. (Emergency responders will take the shortest route; in rare instances this might require wrong way travel.  In such cases, let’s “leave the light on” for them).

For multiple addresses at a single driveway, they shall be mounted on a single post, as well as on the individual buildings and visible from the point of access to the building.  (This way, no one has to run all the way around each building in search of the correct address.)

Well, there you have it.  It’s up to us to help emergency responders locate us without having to drive toward the orange glow or listen for someone screaming for help.