How knowing your Eircode could save someone’s life in an emergency

Does your whole family know your Eircode?

Before becoming a writer for HerFamily, I applied to become an emergency call operator. The application required us to take tests including pretend emergency call scenarios. It was during these pretend emergency calls that I really became aware of the stress operators go through trying to get an ambulance out as quickly as possible. In order for them to help you as fast as they can the most important thing is for them to know your address which, if you live in a rural or difficult to find area, can be tricky. The one way that we can all resolve this issue is by knowing our Eircode off by heart. To keep everyone safe, everyone in the family should know it. Take a few minutes this week to teach everyone the code, or at least where they can see it at a glance should they need it. In any normal situation, we can all direct someone to our home, but if your child is ill, choking or had an accident — it all goes out the window. Panic sets in and sometimes in this panic, we can forget the things we need to say to people like emergency call operators. To prevent this from happening, the best thing you can do is know your Eircode off by heart or have it written down beside your house phone or somewhere you can see it at a glance. Our Eircodes are geotagged and will allow the ambulance to find our home as quickly as possible, which could potentially be life-saving. While most of us only root out our Eircode when trying to order something online,  it's actually much more useful than we think. Emergency responders across the country are asking people to keep their Eircodes in a place where they can be found easily, or simply learn them, as it will help them to find you more easily. If you don't know your Eircode, you can find it by typing in your address to the Eircode website here.