Kenny Staggs, address coordinator for 911 services in Warren County, said he will always remember when a man died while rescue workers were searching for his house.

It was about 10 years ago, said Staggs, whose job involves making sure the county’s database matches up with real addresses. The middle-aged man who called 911 said he was having minor chest pains. While the address of the caller popped up on computer terminals in the dispatch center, EMTs could not find the house because it wasn’t actually marked.

Dispatchers called back for directions – but got no answer. Paramedics, Staggs said, started “knocking on doors.” But when they got to the right house, it was too late.

While city and county ordinances require exterior display of addresses, Staggs said he wishes people would realize there’s more at stake than avoiding a fine.

In 1989, the city started compiling a database of addresses in the city of Vicksburg and Warren County. Vicksburg’s 911 addressing department set up standard address-listing guidelines. Updating is a continuing process.

In 1991, the city passed an ordinance for Warren County’s 911 emergency response system that listed the stipulations for addresses on buildings, Staggs said.

According to the ordinance, the owner of any building, residence or structure that has an address must comply with a number of conditions to ensure its visibility from the road. Owners must post structures’ addresses in a conspicuous manner and place. The building or main building of a complex should display the address on the front of the structure. Addresses fixed on buildings should be understandable from the road.

Sarah Bassett, a paramedic who answers emergency calls with ambulances in the county, said the best way to identify a structure is to display its address close to the road and use reflecting numbers.

“I handmade a mailbox post and put my address on it,” said Donell Youngblood, 122 Lightcap Blvd. His address is displayed at the edge of the street.

Bassett said it’s hard for ambulances to see numbers on houses and, at night, numbers painted dark colors.

“It’s a little more spread out (in the county),” Bassett said.

Paramedics aren’t the only ones who have trouble with identifying addresses.

“If (drivers) can’t find a certain house, they backtrack to their last house and ask where it is,” Cory Holt, a driver for Cintas, said. Holt works out of Jackson but delivers in Vicksburg and the surrounding areas.

The ordinance also specifies that numerals cannot be less than 3 inches in height in the county and 4 inches in the city. Homeowners must mark their mailboxes with the house’s address.

While the county ordinance says an owner of a structure who fails to meet the standards faces a fine of $10 a day for every day of non-compliance, no fines have ever been collected.

Staggs said that’s not really the point. The larger issue, he said, is that homeowners should realize that visible address markers save precious seconds in an emergency.

“I tell people, ‘If it’s on fire, we’ll find it, but if (the situation) needs the police or an ambulance, it will take longer,'” Staggs said. “People say, ‘Everybody knows where I live,’ but there’s always going to be a new deputy, a new first responder.”