Northern Ireland

Reclaimed stones transformed by school children in Co Armagh in initiative to make house numbers visible for emergency services

Primary three pupils from Our Lady's Primary School, Tullysaran take part in a project painting reclaimed stones from a demolished local bar with door numbers so emergency services can find addresses easier. Pictured also is Aidan Early, Community First Responders. Picture by Mal McCann
Primary three pupils from Our Lady's Primary School, Tullysaran take part in a project painting reclaimed stones from a demolished local bar with door numbers so emergency services can find addresses easier. Pictured also is Aidan Early, Community Fir Primary three pupils from Our Lady's Primary School, Tullysaran take part in a project painting reclaimed stones from a demolished local bar with door numbers so emergency services can find addresses easier. Pictured also is Aidan Early, Community First Responders. Picture by Mal McCann

RECLAIMED stones collected from the rubble of a demolished pub have been transformed by school children in Co Armagh in an initiative aimed at making houses visible for the emergency services.

Children at Our Lady's PS, Tullysaran have been marking house numbers on the stones in a project with the Community First Responders (CFR) to raise awareness of the difficulties in finding the exact location of properties during an emergency situation.

Vice principal Kate Comiskey said the stones were collected from the rubble of an old nearby bar that had been knocked down and the materials for the initiative were donated, including paint for the 30 stones, making it a "community-wide project".

Lives can be put at risk if vital minutes are lost in emergencies when ambulance crews cannot see house numbers and property names easily.

In cases of sudden cardiac arrest, minutes can mean the difference between life and death.

While sat-nav systems help crews locate properties, if the house number cannot be quickly identified, vital time is lost looking for clues on the street including numbers on neighbouring properties and rubbish bins.

To highlight the importance of visible house numbers, pupils in P3 have been painting numbers on large stones that will be placed outside properties.

The project has been spearheaded by Ms Comiskey and Aidan Early, a volunteer with the CFR in the Armagh and Tyrone area, an organisation that provides first-aid to assist in certain 999 non-traumatic emergencies.

Ms Comiskey said they wanted to "get the important message through to children from an early age".

"We have been raising awareness to the children of how important it is for house numbers to be prominently displayed," she said.

"The CFR and the other emergency services occasionally have difficulty finding the exact location of an incident in rural areas, such as ours.

"So we have been explaining to the children that to have a house number prominently displayed will alleviate the problem and speed up the response in a medical emergency.

"Whilst many houses have the number displayed on the door, often the house has a driveway, garden or lane and the number is not visible from the road.

"The project involves the children marking the stone with the number and leaving it prominently displayed at the end of the driveway/garden/lane to better identify the address."

Ms Comiskey said the project has also given pupils "an opportunity to contribute to the safety and wellbeing of their community".

"It is a very important topic to talk about and it has a very serious message because it is absolutely vital that when community first aiders or the emergency services respond to an emergency, that they can find the exact location," she added.

Mr Early also said that as a "former paramedic for many years, I remember many times how difficult it was in finding houses and looking for house numbers".

"It is so important that house numbers are visible and this project is highlighting that importance," he said.

"It has been great getting the school children involved and they understand that this is helping their community.

"Our thinking is that if this initiative is successful, we hope to roll out it out to other schools and other areas and get the message out there further."