FORT SIMPSON - A member of the Fort Simpson RCMP detachment is encouraging residents of the village to remember their civic addresses for their own safety.

Almost daily people phone the RCMP and don't know their street address or house number, said Const. Colin Allooloo.

Const. Colin Allooloo stands beside the house number on the RCMP detachment in Fort Simpson. Allooloo is encouraging residents to remember their addresses. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

This lack of knowledge can be a problem if a resident wants to report an incident to the RCMP, fire department, ambulance service or even the wildlife emergency line, said Allooloo. "People should know their addresses," he said.

In the case of a serious emergency, giving an accurate address can increase the speed at which emergency services respond, said Allooloo. Although it's becoming more common for people to know their address, a lot of residents still don't, he said.

It's common for people to refer to their house location by giving vague directions such as saying they live in Wild Rose Acres or on the back road, by which they mean Antoine Drive, he said. Because it's a small community, people also use their neighbours as reference points.

These type of directions work to a point, but not all RCMP officers or other emergency service personnel are familiar with the community. For example, new officers might not know what "on top of the hill" refers to, said Allooloo.

Not knowing your civic address is also a problem for after hours calls to the RCMP, Allooloo said. The calls are routed through dispatch in Yellowknife and people often don't know their civic addresses. This means the dispatch ticket only has a name and a number on it.

When that happens, an officer has to look up an address using the RCMP's computer system. If the person isn't on the system, the officer has to call them and get a set of directions.

"That's frustrating," said Allooloo.

"It takes time when people don't know their address."

The fastest way to get service is to give a civic address, said Allooloo. The RCMP, fire department and ambulance are all now using an emergency preparedness map that has all the civic addresses plotted on it.

Allooloo started the initiative to create the map after he moved to the community in November 2004 and noticed that only some of the houses had numbers posted. The numbers also only appeared in bits and pieces on some maps of the village. The final touches were put on the new emergency preparedness map earlier this year.

The Fort Simpson volunteer fire department runs across the same problem with people not knowing their addresses, said Pat Rowe, the fire chief.

Rowe said that "all the time" people describe where their house is by listing the people they live beside.

"If you can give a street address we can definitely get there a lot better," said Rowe.

Rowe added, however, that the problem is worse for the RCMP who often have new members who aren't as familiar with the village.