During the Pearl River County Board of Supervisors meeting Monday morning, the county fire marshal mentioned an ongoing problem regarding emergency response.

Residents have a habit of not maintaining address numbers on both the mailbox and home, making it difficult for emergency responders to find the correct address. 

If the address is only displayed on the mailbox at the end of a road where a number of other mailboxes are, it’s hard to find the house in question that corresponds to the address.

While it may seem simple to nail up or paint a few numbers on the front porch too many homes lack this detail.

But what county residents should realize is that this simple addition to your home could wind up saving your life.

In an area like Pearl River County, many emergency responders know the area well because they learned to drive on these roads, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be times when they have trouble finding the correct house.

Other times there are variants of the county streets with the same name, so dispatchers and

responders have to be especially watchful of the location they are being sent, or face the risk of extending their response time.

Public roads sometimes become private roads, which are renamed several times over the years. It’s the job of the E-911 addressing to maintain an accurate system of all the roads in the county so that emergency responders can get where they are needed quickly.

However, missing street signs, address numbers or any other changes need to be reported and approved to ensure the best service possible.

While emergency responders are normally able to find their destination, it would be catastrophic to see the day when they couldn’t make it in time to save a life due to a missing house number.