Yuma, Arizona - With our cooling temperatures, Yumans may be thinking about more outdoor recreational activity, such as camping. Warm days, but often cold nights will mean camp fires. With low humidity, and occasional periods of gusty winds, fires can spread quickly and be more difficult to stop. Preventing fires is much easier and safer than putting them out. Here are a few things we would like you to keep in mind:
- Use extreme care in the use of all fire, and potentially fire causing activities, whether it be for industrial, home, or recreational use. Make sure campfires and smoking materials are extinguished. Use spark arrestors in mechanical equipment such as chain saws and off-road vehicles. When you pull off a roadway, be sure not to park in grassy areas.
- Observe “Red Flag” warnings. Those warnings will be issued by the National Weather Service when weather conditions are conducive to the easy start and rapid spread of wildfires. During such times, citizens should curtail activities that could cause fire and should obey all fire restrictions and area closures.
- Fortunately Yuma does not have much of the “Wildland-Urban interface” where brush and forest lands enter into our community. Areas traditionally of greatest risk here have been along the Colorado River. The City’s development of parkland areas along the river, like the West and East Wetlands, have reduced the threat to our community by reducing fuel and adding green space areas.
For more information about fire and injury prevention classes we offer, contact the Yuma Fire Department Public Information Office at (928) 373-4855.