| House
number campaign started
The Cottonwood Fire Department is undertaking a campaign to ensure that city residents have address numbers on their homes. The house numbering campaign is part of the department’s fire safety and prevention program. Address numbers that are readily visible from the street are very important to emergency service providers who are often provided only an address to respond to an incident. Emergency responders include the fire department, ambulance, and police. Readily visible home addresses help responders quickly find the correct location of an incident. Most of us realize that time is critical when someone with a medical emergency needs help, but a few minutes can also make a big difference when there is a fire. A fire in a home can spread extremely rapidly after only ten minutes, depending on conditions. The fire department is often not notified until the fire has already begun to spread. Then, it can take 5 to 10 minutes for firefighters to respond to the station, put on their gear, and arrive on scene with the fire engines. When they have difficulty locating an address, additional precious minutes are lost and their ability to save victims, or extinguish the fire with limited damage to property, is greatly reduced. The Cottonwood Fire Department has purchased reflective adhesive numbers which can be applied to most types of housing materials without the use of nails or screws. City residents who don’t have address numbers on their houses or have numbers that are not readily visible from the street should notify Carol at City Hall (962-3231), or any member of the fire department, of their name and address. The fire department will deliver and install house numbers, if requested. Over the next few weeks, members of the fire department will go door-to-door offering to install address numbers on houses that need them. The fire department also has smoke alarms and home fire extinguishers available to anyone who needs them. There is no charge for the home address numbers, smoke alarms, or fire extinguishers since they have been purchased through a grant from the Department of Homeland Security. Please help the fire department, our other emergency responders, and yourselves by participating in this opportunity to reduce risks to your safety and property. |
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