The Farm 911 sign campaign has expanded to Northumberland County.
Allan and Terry Carruthers installed a Farm 911 sign on their property, marking the entrance with a civic address.
There are many properties in the rural countryside without a 911 number sign and that can have tragic consequences for emergency responders trying to find a property.
“Getting this done has been a priority for us; we have been advocates for ‘Farm 911: The Emily Project’ since it launched last year,” said Allan Carruthers, as local officials gathered to celebrate the first sign installation in Northumberland recently.
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“Our property at this location covers 130 acres and we could be from one end to the other and back throughout the day. With a civic address, this field entrance is now part of the emergency response system, giving us a marker to narrow our location for first responders, which they can find using GPS data. We hope that every farmer in the county will move forward with this.”
Farm 911: The Emily Project is named for seven-year-old Hastings County resident Emily Trudeau, who died from a farm accident in 2014. The program encourages agricultural land owners to have entrances to their vacant land assessed for civic addresses so that 911 roadside signs can be installed, helping first responders to more easily locate these entrances.
The municipalities of Northumberland County have joined with the counties of Hastings, Prince Edward, and Lennox and Addington in making this initiative a priority.
“Today marks the very first of what will ideally be many such installations in Alnwick/Haldimand and across the county,” said Alnwick/Haldimand Mayor and County Councillor John Logel. “While we hope that the Carruthers family never does experience an emergency, this sign will help our first responders to more easily locate them if they are out in the field when one occurs.
Northumberland Country contributed financially to get the project started in the area.
There are requirements that must be met for a property entrance to qualify for a civic address, including suitability of the entrance for access by emergency vehicles.
