Two simple things at your home can save us minutes when you call 911: a number we can read from the road, and a driveway our trucks can get up. This winter, Stronach Township property owners will find this note from the fire department with their tax bills. Here it is online too, with a printable copy at the bottom of the page.
Can We Find You in the Dark?
When you call 911, the dispatcher gives us your address. But at night, in a snowstorm, or with smoke in the air, that address only helps if we can read your number from the road. Our firefighters are paid-on-call neighbors who respond from their own homes, and many houses here sit back in the trees, share a driveway, or show a number only on the house. Every driveway we pass and have to come back to costs time that a patient or a fire does not have.
Tonight, try finding your own number from the road with your headlights. If it is hard for you to spot, it is harder for us.
Make your number easy to find
- Numbers at least 4 inches tall with a half-inch stroke, the minimum in the national model fire code.
- A color that stands out from its background, in reflective material.
- Posted where your driveway meets the road, on both sides of a post or mailbox.
- On a shared drive, every address where it leaves the road and again at each split.
- Kept clear of snowbanks, brush and tall grass all year.
Will Our Trucks Fit Down Your Driveway?
Our fire trucks are big and heavy. Tender 11 carries 3,000 gallons of water, and that water alone weighs more than 12 tons. If a truck cannot get up your driveway, firefighters stop at the road and carry hose, medical gear and stretchers in on foot. The ambulance faces the same problem.
Fire departments commonly plan for a home’s driveway to have 12 feet of clear width and 13 feet 6 inches of clear height. A low branch, a tight gap between trees, a gate, a parked camper or a soft shoulder can each stop us short.
Clear a path for us
- Trim limbs back to 13 feet 6 inches overhead and 12 feet across.
- Keep vehicles, boats, campers and equipment out of the drive.
- Remember that a culvert or small bridge has to carry the truck’s weight.
- In winter, plow the full width and push the snow back far enough that a truck can swing in from the road.
- On a long driveway, leave a spot near the house where a truck can turn around.
Thank you for helping us reach you when it counts. Questions? Call us at 231-454-2184. Please feel free to share this page with your neighbors.
Fred R. LaPoint, Fire Chief Paramedic
Download the printable copy (PDF, both sides)
Sources: address number size from International Fire Code §505.1. Driveway width and height are a common fire-service planning standard, not a Stronach Township ordinance. Water weight figured at 8.34 pounds per gallon.