"I spoke to a rural delivery guy and we went and met with (then Hurunui Mayor) Winton Dalley and highlighted a few problems and we've been working on it ever since."
The Culverden Volunteer Fire Brigade responded to around 70 callouts a year, while Culverden St John had about 630 callouts last year - many of them on rural roads.
Used correctly, the (RAPID) system should make it easier for emergency services to locate properties because the number tells the distance from a defined reference point.
But there was a lack of consistency as a number of roads, such as Inland Road, between Waiau and Kaikoura, had more than one reference point, meaning there could be two or more properties with the same RAPID number on the same road.
The growth of dairying in the Culverden area meant there were now multiple houses on the same farm - and often using the same RAPID number, with farmers coming up with their own methods to distinguish properties.
"Farmers decided they had a RAPID number, so they numbered their dwellings," Ritchie said.
"For example, if the RAPID number was 107, they would call themselves 1071, 1072, 1073...
"The farmer and the farm workers all know what that means, but the 111 operator doesn't."
A 111 call centre operator had 90 seconds to get the information to relay to emergency services and the fire engine needed to be out the door five minutes after the call, so the timing was crucial.
Time could also be lost when RAPID numbers were not on the entrance gate.
"Every 60 seconds the intensification of a fire doubles, so if you lose five minutes, the intensification of the fire has increased five times, so every minute we save, saves lives," Fire and Emergency New Zealand assistant commander, Des Irving said.
Land and Information New Zealand has decreed that multiple houses on the same driveway should use letters as suffixes rather than numbers - in other words, 107A, 107B instead of 1071, 1072.
Where there were more than five houses on one right-of-way, it needed to become a private road with each house assigned its own RAPID number.
The Hurunui District Council came on board 12 months ago, with planner Scott Rose working with Ritchie.
"They gave Scott and I a year which was great because we tidied up this fire district," Ritchie said.
"But how can we move forward to cover the whole (Hurunui) district?"
Since the project began, around 600 RAPID numbers had been assessed in the Amuri Basin - around 70 per cent of properties in the area.
Around 95 per cent of the rural properties checked have needed assistance with the RAPID number.
Two right-of-ways had also been designated as private roads.
Irving said there was the potential to improve RAPID numbering systems throughout New Zealand, and several districts were doing a good job at managing it.
Ritchie and Irving made a presentation to the Hurunui District Council's strategy and policy committee last month, recommending the council fund a half-time administration position to roll out the project to the rest of the district.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand could use its influence in the community and work with Lions and Rotary clubs to get the message out to rural property owners, Irving said.
