Yellowknife (Jan 10/07) - It's a nightmare scenario - flames are starting to spread inside your house. The fire department has been called but they are still searching for your house because you don't have your address in big numbers on the outside of your home.

It's an issue residents need to think about - the danger of not having visible addresses on the outside of their houses, according to Yellowknife's deputy fire chief.

"I wouldn't even try to guess the percentage rate of homes that don't have them but it's still too high," said Chucker Dewar, deputy fire chief of life safety and prevention.

"People think, 'it's never going to happen to me,'" said Dewar.

The fire department hasn't had any problems recently in finding houses when attending emergency calls. But Dewar said that means that they've been called to houses that luckily have visible address numbers on them. And that could change in an instant, he said.

"It all depends on the emergency," said Dewar.

Doug Gillard, manager of municipal enforcement, said it's important that people don't overlook what might seem like a non-issue.

"If it's a life and death matter and they can't find the address... every second that goes by could mean somebody's life," said Gillard.

There has been a municipal bylaw requiring visible addresses on buildings in Yellowknife since 1993. House numbers have to meet a required size relating to the distance the building is from the road, according to the bylaw.

Building owners who haven't labelled their structures are first sent a letter by the city. If they don't put up an address, they could face fines up to $5,000 for a residence and up to $10,000 for a corporation. If they don't pay their fine it could result in jail time - up to six months. However, Gillard said officers respond only after receiving a complaint that a building has no address.

"We're lucky if we get one or two complaints a year," he said.

"I don't think anyone's ever had to pay a fine for not having an address. When it's brought to their attention, they have always complied."

He said there is no plan to target address-less buildings.

But Dewar said such a blitz wouldn't be out of the question.

"It's very realistic that we may do a campaign; an educational thing and then a follow-up sweep," he said.

The sweep would involve visiting buildings without addresses to remind property owners of the necessity of having clearly visible addresses, he said.

"There's a lot at stake," said Dewar.