Few people want to be victims.

Yet, as you may read on our front page, there are residents in Picayune who fail to post their address or fail to post it clearly at their residence. By not displaying an address or by displaying an address improperly, residents are putting themselves inadvertently in harm’s way.

The longer it takes for an ambulance to find a house and the longer it takes for fire trucks to get to the fire, the greater the risk to one’s health or home. Every second a first responder uses searching for your home is one more second for wood to burn, for smoke to damage clothes or worse.

While it is true that smart phones and GPS devices may make it easier to find a home, errant computer directions have also led most of us astray at some point.

A clear, visual confirmation of an address puts all uncertainty to rest and it follows the letter of the law.

Homeowners are required to display their addresses at the end of their driveway and also on their home with reflective numbers. These fixes are cheap and easy.

We also recommend that residents place the numbers near a porch light and keep the light on at night. A lit porch light does not use much electricity (especially if it burns a fluorescent or LED bulb) and it works to your advantage and to your neighbor’s advantage every night. Imagine a whole block of homes at night, all of them dark.

Imagine another block, all with their porch lights on.

It is not hard to understand why some neighborhoods are targets for burglaries.

And, of course, a lit bulb is also useful for letting emergency personnel, guests and even pizza delivery drivers know when they’ve got the right house.

Should you have an emergency and require and ambulance, the last thing you want to worry about is whether your porch light is on and your address is visible.