Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Wild Fire Erupts - 12/23/14 - Yuma, AZ

Tuesday – December 23, 2014
Wild Fire Erupts - Parade of Lights
Imperial Dam BLM LTVA
Yuma, Arizona

It was a beautiful sunny day, but quite windy with strong gusts of wind throughout the day and evening. The temperature was quite pleasant in the high 70s.

Late this afternoon, we noticed a large plume of smoke, about 3 miles north of our campground, very close to the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground. With our binoculars, we could see it was a brush fire that was raging out of control. Firefighters from the Yuma Proving Ground had arrived on the scene, but the strong winds kept spreading the fire toward the southeast, faster than they could contain it. As nighttime approached, the fire lit up the night sky. The fire had erupted close to a wetland area and the firefighters were containing the fire to keep it from spreading north, over the Imperial Dam Road, onto the Yuma Proving Ground. Update: The fire was finally contained late into the evening on Christmas Eve.

At 6:00 p.m. the Parade of Lights Christmas parade commenced at the Imperial Dam BLM. The parade takes place every night, for five nights, through Christmas Eve. There are seven vehicles in the parade. Each vehicle is outfitted with strings of Christmas lights and rooftop displays powered by their 12-volt batteries. One SUV had two reindeer pulling a sled on its roof, another had a snowman on its roof, and another had a Christmas tree on its roof. They traveled in formation throughout the LTVA. It was quite a nice display of good cheer leading up to Christmas.

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

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