YUMA, Ariz.-
The Tropicana Motel on 4th Avenue in Yuma caught on fire Monday afternoon. An employee at the motel says the fire was caused by faulty wiring in the office, but that has not been confirmed by the City of Yuma Fire Department.
YFD received the call of the fire shortly after 1:00 pm. When firefighters arrived they say smoke was rising from the roof of the office. Mike Erfert with YFD says the fire started in one of the walls of the office. Only part of the motel was evacuated and no one was injured. “They were able to find a fire in the area of the office and were able to quickly extinguish that fire,” says Erfert.
Fire officials are still investigating the cause of the fire.
This was the latest fire YFD had to extinguish. There were three others over the past four days.
On Friday, YFD was alerted that one of their fire sprinkler system had activated at the Del Sol Market in Yuma. On arrival firefighters say a fire started in the storage room in one of the buildings but was extinguished by the fire sprinkler. Erfert says, “there was a fire in a storage room at the market however it had been extinguished by the sprinkler head.” He says this is perfect example on how fire sprinklers work to stop fires from spreading. No one was injured in the fire.
Then on Saturday evening, a fire spread along the outside of three apartments at Yuma Home Park. City of Yuma firefighters arrived on scene and extinguished the flames quickly. No one was harmed. The American Red Cross was called to the scene to assist the occupants whose apartments were on fire. The cause of the fire is under investigation and has not yet been determined.
Another fire happened Saturday evening in a laundry room at the Days Inn Hotel in Yuma. Firefighters observed smoke coming from the building and evacuation of the occupants taking place. The contents in one of the dryers in the laundry room were on fire.
Firefighters extinguished the fire, and removed the dryer contents from the building. The affected areas were ventilated to remove the smoke. There were no injuries and the damage was contained to the dryer where the fire occurred.
Erfert says it was a pretty busy couple of days for the fire department, “85% of our calls for service are emergency medical calls. So this was a little different weekend and we are hoping it’s kind of passed by.”