New Mexico town says farewell to 2020 with dumpster fire

BELEN, N.M. (KGO) -- Most everyone would agree 2020 was a disastrous year.

A New Mexico town thought that a dumpster fire was the perfect way to say farewell to the past year.

The mayor of Belen and fire department invited residents out to watch this year go up in flames.

"They're driving up to give us their old calendars, some of their paper masks, that type of thing. Just to burn it off and just say bye to 2020 and hello to 2021," said Chief Brett Ruff.

The mayor says the idea actually came from someone in the community on Facebook and it just took off from there.

VIDEO: 2020: Looking back at how the COVID pandemic controlled the year

2020 will forever be remembered as the year the world came to a halt, crippled by the coronavirus pandemic.