Help rescuers find you quicker by clearly marking your property

Lost seconds could mean the difference between life and death when responders need to find your home swiftly in an emergency.

But they are often delayed getting to the scene owing to a lack of visible house numbers.

Forget Google Maps which, according to Fidelity ADT marketing and communications head Charnel Hattingh, often leaves responders playing a guessing game as they try to navigate which house is which in a street.

This causes much frustration among paramedics, police and security officers when lives hang in the balance.

“When you call for emergency assistance, in the event of a fire, medical emergency or criminal incident, one of the dispatcher’s priorities is to ascertain where the emergency is taking place. Your address is naturally very important as this is relayed to the relevant emergency service, such as the fire department, police or ambulance,” she said.

“It is crucial that responders are able to find your property easily and quickly. They can only do this if you have a visible house number displayed. It is not ideal to have someone wait outside to flag the emergency vehicle down because you don’t have a visible house number or because finding your property is confusing.”

The problem is more common than one might imagine, Ballito Neighbourhood Watch chairman, Morné Steffens stressed.

He said they have often had to paint house numbers near driveways to help with easy identification for security and emergency medical responders.

“People often do not have clearly visible numbering on their properties, especially at night,” he said.

But how is this issue more prevalent in Ballito compared to other areas?

According to Steffens it is because of the size of many properties, especially older stands that have over the years been subdivided into two or even three stands.

“This of course confuses people when they are given an address, for example home number 42, but there is in fact A, B and C on that property,” he said.

In some cases, there are even streets across Ballito that for some reason skip a number. “Take Zen Drive for example, where there is a stretch that goes 9, 13 and 17,” he said.

Typically, house numbers run parallel to one another.

All of this has a major impact on response times.

Should you be in need of properly identifying your home by number, consider The Pottery at Ballito Lifestyle Centre where one can buy either smooth or texture styled house numbers, painted or glazed at R105.

Funds raised through these sales are put to good use through Triple M, a start-up business which supports worthy causes.

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