Fire destroys Yuma trailer

A Yuma woman and her children narrowly escaped injury Wednesday morning when their trailer caught fire stemming from a lit candle.

Just before 7 a.m., the Yuma Fire Department was called to the 600 block of South 20th Avenue, where a trailer behind a home had caught fire.

Firefighters initially believed the trailer was vacant, but soon learned the woman and her two children were inside at the time the fire started, the YFD said in a news release.

When fire crews arrived, the trailer was engulfed in the flames but firefighters were able to quickly put the fire out and account for all the occupants, the fire department said.

The initial investigation shows it started with a candle that was at the head of the woman's bed. She apparently forget to extinguish the candle when she went to bed, firefighters said.

After being awoken by the heat from the fire, she grabbed her two children and ran outside, where she proceeded to fight the fire with a water hose, firefighters said.

There was no smoke detector in the trailer, which prompted firefighters to remind residents to have at least one working detector in their homes and to be careful to extinguish all candles while keeping them away from flammable material.