ONOTA​ FIRE

Safety

Is your home or address visible from the road?

If your home is secluded, down a long driveway with multiple forks, or your fire number sign is unreadable – please take steps to help fire and emergency personnel to locate you more quickly.  Cut the brush back from your fire sign.  If you cannot afford a new fire number sign, please sand and repaint your old one if it is metal.  If your driveway is lengthy or confusing – please use your fire number when making additional handmade signs, painting arrows on trees, or otherwise pointing emergency responders to your home. 

When the fire department finds you, can we reach you?  Will your driveway allow fire apparatus to reach your home?

Please keep in mind that firetrucks are much larger than the largest pickup or SUV.  Just because you can get to your home doesn’t mean that we can.  We have already identified locations in the township that require pre-incident planning due to unique challenges.  Please let us know if you have any concerns like this about your home.

Use this checklist to help determine if a firetruck will be able to reach your home:

• Is there a 12 foot wide clearance?

• Is there 12 feet of clearance overhead?

• Do all the turns have a wide radius?

• What condition is your road in?  Is it extremely rough? 

• If you have a bridge, is it wide and strong enough for a fire truck?

Fire can double in size every minute.  CPR should be started within 4 minutes. A delay of a few minutes in finding or reaching your home can have devastating consequences.