Yuma, Arizona - Yuma Fire Department’s firefighters, deployed to help with wildfires burning near Yucaipa, CA and later Fresno, CA, have returned home! As of Saturday September 19, 2020, they had been deployed for two weeks and four additional YFD Firefighters had arrived to replace them. The original four YFD personnel started back for Yuma Sunday morning and arrived safely back late Sunday afternoon.

Yuma’s firefighters, working as a part of an Imperial Valley Task Force, first left for assignment to the “El Dorado Fire” in the area of Yucaipa, CA on Saturday September 5th. They were released from the “El Dorado Fire” on Sunday September 13th and reassigned to the “Creek Fire” near Fresno, CA. YFD firefighters worked rotating 12 and 24 hour shifts protecting homes and dealing with spot fires in their assigned areas.

The returned YFD personnel will be resuming their regular duty assignments. Those who returned back yesterday from our department were Fire Captain John Dunbar, Fire Engineer John Anderson, Firefighter Levi Kester, and Firefighter Cory Tolman. We are glad to have them back and congratulate them on a job well done!

At this time there is no estimate on how long the Imperial Valley Task Force with the newly rotated Firefighters will remain deployed.