Firefighter Tim Goodlet raised the issue earlier this month, saying many Bathurst houses aren’t numbered at all, or are poorly numbered making it hard for emergency services to respond to the right place quickly.

Firefighter Goodlet said emergency services need house numbers to be easy to see.

“They want you to see if your address number is actually in place and in reasonable condition, has contrasted coloured numbers from the background, visible and in a suitable and prominent spot so it can be easily seen in the day or the night.”

“When we get an emergency call, we are usually directed to a specific address. In our game speed is of great importance and we often find ourselves struggling to find street address numbers around Bathurst, particularly at night.”

Paramedic with NSW Ambulance, Rhys Dive, agreed saying speed is of the essence, and it was vital paramedics can locate homes quickly.

“Finding a property quickly can make all the difference [for someone needing treatment],” he said.

Inspector Dive said triple 0 operators are trained to ask for additional information, such as the nearest cross street, but said anything people can do to assist emergency services identify the correct location is useful.

Duty officer with Chifley Local Area Command, David Abercrombie also lent his support to the campaign saying it was important emergency responders can find a location quickly.

Firefighter Goodlet said people may think that a building alight would be easy to find, but this is certainly not the case.

“We also respond to many other emergency incidents other then fires anyway, and we need to be able to find addresses quickly.”

He urged people to upgrade their numbers on their house, or simply cut back vegetation around the numbers, clean or repaint them, so the property can be found.