Smart initiative for marking homes

If your home isnt marked with an easy-to-read address, youre sentencing your family to potential death.

Firefighters and other workers already have a difficult time threading their way through traffic and handling the demands of widely varied emergencies. Theres little worse than making it to the area of need and then being unable to find the caller.

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Winfield firefighters well know the need for readable address numbers. With some of the countys more-remote sites in their service area, theyve long been frustrated by unmarked residences.

Worse, when firefighters difficulty in finding those homes gets them hit with complaints about slow response times, some residents use the grumbling as an excuse to withhold subscription payments to the private service.

Rather than just remind residents yet again that visible house numbers are the law, Winfield firefighters themselves made the numbers available for sale. Their signs cost just $16 and include four-inch-high reflective numbers on a short post. Our goal is to cut response times, says Winfield firefighter Gordon Sparks. Just as important, the bright idea helps raise funds for the cash-strapped private fire department.

Good for them. Residents can order a marker by calling Sparks at 541-1603. Its a cheap price for family safety.