Help Us Help You

Each week we’ll be presenting topics of interest and concern to the community we serve. If you have any questions or a topic you’d like to see covered, please submit your inquiries to the editor!

Our first topic is Help us…find you! When it comes to any emergency, time is the enemy. Shortness of breath, a traffic accident, a heart attack, or a fire; they all get progressively worse with time. Finding you in your emergency is our first step in saving lives and property.

At 373 square miles Jasper County meets every definition of a rural environment. While some Fire/EMS personnel are from here, some are not; and while you know where you are, and our staff knows where the roads are…it isn’t always as simple as that.

Jasper County has some dark roads, and has more properties than not that have long secluded driveways. Many homes have beautiful mailboxes, and many homes have custom decorative numbers up on their home.

But I’d like you to imagine a dark night with no moon, on a street that you’re not familiar with and several homes have obvious mailboxes; but several have missing numbers, several have no numbers, one driveway has no mailbox at all.

And you’re responding to a 55-yr old male who is having a heart attack, possibly not breathing. We know you’re scared and panicking, and we’re trying our best to get to you….but we can’t find you.

You can see our bright lights flashing and you’re waving at us, but we can’t see a figure on a porch waving at us in the dark.

We have a solution! 911 Address Signs! Communities across the country utilize these to the point that their legislators pass ordinances for them. They are highly reflective and easy to see from our trucks! If you have one already, awesome!

If you don’t, it is so easy to get one! Call the Jasper County Fire/EMS Dept at 706-468-4943. For $15 we will get your sign ready with your house number!

We want to respond to your emergency in the shortest time possible, your visibility helps make that happen.