Addressing Information
What is in an address? An address is more than a place to deliver mail. A physical address is where you are located. We are taught from an early age where we live and what our address is. When 911 asks for your address, that address tells us where you can be found and can be located easily on the map. It may or may not be where you live or an address you are fully familiar with. Emergency services personnel require that information to quickly locate, and easily read, your address to provide emergency and other services to you.
Response time may be critical, and the time it takes to pinpoint a precise location can mean the difference between life and death. Consider this real-life incident that recently happened in another municipality. A call was placed to 911 reporting that a man was suffering a cardiac-arrest. EMS was dispatched to the address. The location was not clearly visible. They were desperately searching for an address number on homes along the street and stopped at three homes that had no number.
Consider this:
- You get hurt, and the only one able to call is your child
- Your child gets hurt or is choking, and you cannot leave them to go outside
- Someone is breaking into your house at 3:00 in the morning, and it’s unsafe to speak
In ALL of these incidents seconds matter!
If you live on a part of the road where the postal service has advised you to place your mailbox at a different location or put it together with the neighbors’ mail boxes, you still need to mark your entrance and residence clearly. When emergency responders are on the way to help you, a group of mailboxes will not tell them which house is yours.Your address should be displayed and marked clearly on the entrance to your residence or business. If there is more than one residence or business on the driveway, each one should be clearly marked with their address, appartment, or suite.
The Town’s 911 system is designed to display your house number and street and street address to the dispatcher who answers your call. Make sure that the telephone company has listed in their records the correct full physical address of your home or business.
Help protect yourself, your property, and your family by making sure your address is correctly displayed and easily readable.
The Town of South Windsor is providing citizens with an opportunity to purchase an address placard for the cost of $20.00 that meets the Town's current addressing ordinance.