Sumter Co. reflective house signs help support youth program, emergency response time

SUMTER COUNTY, Ga. (WALB) - It is National EMS Week and one Southwest Georgia county is keeping EMS workers in mind.

Sumter County Fire Rescue is urging residents to purchase blue reflective house number signs to help first responders quickly locate home addresses in an emergency.

“When you’re calling 911, most of the time, that’s probably one of the worst days of your life that you’re having,” Sumter County Fire Chief Jerry Harmon said. “It’s just very important that when we’re responding, because I know here in Sumter County we’re very, very rural county, and we rely on those, these house numbers being at the front.”

Harmon said the house numbers should be big enough for the emergency personnel to see when they are coming down the road.

Each house sign is $30 and can be purchased from the Sumter 4-H Extension Office.

Harmon said there is an ordinance in place for Sumter County residents to have visible house signs on either their houses or mailboxes.

“The ordinance is put in place to help the sheriff’s office, the EMS and the fire service to locate that house. And you know a lot quicker, we can get a quicker response time with these houses are,” Harmon said.

Residents who don’t have visible house signs are given flyers to educate them on the house signs, according to Harmon.

“Not everybody you know rushes out and buys a sign because you know they are, they are costly, but for the most part, every you know the public understands where we’re coming from, and and and they see the need as well as we do,” Harmon said.

Harmon said that Sumter County has a great EMS crew.

“We can’t say enough about them and the hard work and the dedication that they put into their job. And you know, we just want them to know that we greatly appreciate all their efforts and everything that they do here locally,” he said.

According to the UGA Extension office in Sumter County, the proceeds act as a fundraiser for the 4-H youth development program.

The program was made with the goal of spreading awareness of healthy living in the Sumter County community.

WALB reached out to 4-H agent Crystal Perry at the office but she was unavailable at the time.

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