Yuma Firefighters short staffed

The Yuma Fire Department has had to shrink their personnel due to budget cuts making it harder to fight fires in a timely manner, according to fire officials.

“We have faced some budgetary concerns which included not staffing one of our pieces of equipment, the ladder truck,” Mike Erfert with Yuma Fire Department said.

Erfert says that made it more challenging to stop these two fires Wednesday night.

“It’s an indicator when you have one piece of fire fighting equipment that would be there and isn’t that certainly is a concern,” Erfert says.

Fire crews worked to battle two homes on fire Wednesday despite needing three more fire fighters. A problem that Erfert says could of been solved by the passing of Prop 407 last election cycle. If passed he says it would have gave them the budget to hire three more fire fighters.

“At present the work is being done for the next budget year. So I’m sure that’s getting a lot of discussion,” Erfert says.

For now both families affected by the fire Wednesday night say they are thankful for the fire fighters quick response.