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Column: As Eaton fire advanced, here’s how employees rescued 45 elderly and disabled patients – Jobsmaa.com

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Juana Rodriguez, administrator of Two Palms Care Center in Altadena, was visiting her home in Riverside. She washed up and got ready to have dinner with her family when she got an urgent call from her duty nurse.

The fire was approaching the facility, which houses 45 elderly and disabled patients ranging in age from their mid-60s to 103, many of them bedridden, some with dementia.

“I grabbed my things and I told my family to go back to work because we might have to leave,” Rodriguez said.

Steve Lopez

Steve Lopez is a California native who has been a Los Angeles Times columnist since 2001. He has won more than a dozen National Journalism Awards and is a four-time Pulitzer finalist.

That same evening, Tony Moya, an administrator at Golden Legacy, a sister company in Sylmar, was back at his Sunland home when a colleague texted him to ask how many beds were available for evacuees.

U.S. Moya, who served in the Marine Corps and was part of Operation Desert Storm in the first Gulf War, stepped out to return to work. But the wind was fierce, so instead of heading back to Sylmar, he ran east on 210. Flames were rolling at the base as he approached, and he called a colleague, who went to two palms.

“”You know, we're getting into a big fight tonight, “” Moya told him.

The Eden and Palisades Fire was one of the worst disasters in Southern California history, destroying thousands of structures, causing billions in damages and more than two dozen lives lost. Many defects and failures in preparation and response are separated by months if not months.

But as the fire broke out, first responders, private citizens and others all went out to protect property and life, sometimes at great risk. The story, based on interviews with 14 employees and two evacuees, describes the turmoil and determination that characterized the two Palms on the night of January 7, and unexpectedly the next morning.

Rodriguez's husband drove her back to Altadena, and along the way she checked in with her managers at Golden State Health Centers, the owner of 10 care facilities in the area. He called the two palms, where two nurses, seven nurse's aides and a cook were on duty. Gather the blankets, she told them, and add the patients to the wheelchairs.

Valerie Fine talks with fellow expatriate Brenda Robinson at Golden Legacy Nursing Home Nursing Center in Sylmar.

Valerie Fine chats with fellow Eaton fire evacuee Brenda Robinson in their room at Golden Legacy Care Center in Sylmar on Jan. 16. Fine and Robinson are residents of Altadena's Two Palms Care Center who had to be evacuated around midnight.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

But as she and her husband approached, they found the streets leading to the two palms blocked.

“Embers came down. There were already trees on fire,” Rodriguez said. “So we tried to … find another way.”

The smoke was so thick that her husband said he couldn't see anything, but Rodriguez told him to keep going.

“I will guide you,” he said. “I want to do that for my patients.”

It was a common refrain throughout the evening.

After receiving a call at home from Martha Perez Rodriguez, director of social services at Two Palms, she said it was her duty to return to her worried son and husband. As she was driving, another colleague called and warned her that she would not be able to go.

“I kept insisting,” Perez said.

As Moya approached, “Embers were flying everywhere. The wind was blowing, I would say maybe 50, 60 miles an hour. You can't see anything. ”

He used a phone app to navigate to the last two blocks. When he arrived, nearby structures were on fire.

“The smoke was already inside the building and I saw … already 10 patients lined up in their wheelchairs,” Moya said. “So I told everybody, 'We're going to leave.'

Meanwhile, more employees from sister facilities and corporate headquarters — including floor supervisor Oscar Cornejo, driver Joseph Banduro, maintenance supervisor Nestor Alfonso, operations coordinator Oscar Mejia, patient transfer coordinator Mendel Goldstein and medical director Daniel Jarrett — were on hand.

Firefighters doused the last of the flames hours after the evacuation of the Two Palms care center on January 8.

Firefighters doused the last flames at the Two Palms Care Center in Altadena on Jan. 8 hours after they were evacuated.

(Robert Kauthier/Los Angeles Times)

“We were picking people up, putting them in cars, in ambulances,” said Jared, who came to transport patients.

Alfonso entered the smoking building and asked the staff and police officers who had come to the end of a hall to evacuate the patients. The power went out, so he used his cellphone flashlight and wheeled patients out to their medical beds. One of them repeated to him, “I am very afraid.”

Some residents begged to stay. They were “yelling, some saying, 'I don't want to go, I want to stay,'” Mejia said, telling them that was not an option.

As they carried patients and pushed hospital beds, the staff struggled to breathe. “There was fire all around us,” Cornejo said. “My fear is we're going to be in the middle of a ring of fire”, unable to escape.

“Smoke and embers were hitting your face, and I was thinking … the last thing I want is for someone to blow me in the eye,” Cornejo continued, but someone — an ambulance attendant or a police officer — handed him a pair of goggles.

Outside, some were so frightened they were confined to wheelchairs as staff tried to lift them into vehicles, begging them not to be left alone.

“In the line of patients outside, I saw some praying, some closing their eyes, some trying to hide themselves,” Banduro said. “I was telling them they're OK, they're leaving soon.” He put on some music and turned on some Christmas lights tied to the van.

Goldstein recalled that some patients screamed as he helped extricate them. At Meanhill, his skin was singed by embers, and ash covered his hair as the fire continued to advance.

“It's very emotional,” Goldstein was thinking, “I have a family … and I'm probably doomed.”

Two palms were destroyed, but all 45 patients were safely transported to nearby facilities. Moya had four people in her Subaru, and one woman insisted they go to Two Palms and get Charlie. She feared they had left someone out, but another patient explained that Charlie had been the name of the woman's dog decades earlier.

A few hours later, the responders learned that the residents of Two Palms were not done with their trip.

The next morning, January 8, another alarm was sounded as the fire spread. The Golden Rose Care Center in Pasadena, formerly known as the Rose Garden, was forced to evacuate, and some of the roughly 70 patients there had arrived hours earlier from Two Palms.

Moya, who was not yet asleep, called the same staff who had taken out the two palms, as well as additional colleagues. He needs “all hands on deck,” said Ken Keeler, Golden Legacy's executive assistant.

“So I jumped in my Honda Civic, probably the least practical car to take to an evacuation,” said Keeler, who made several trips between Pasadena and Sylmar with two or three patients each time, picking up enough ambulators to get in from his Honda.

Counselor Joey Silva said staff scrambled to ensure patients had the necessary medications, medical records and patient identification.

When Jane Kam, an art therapist and yoga instructor at Golden Legacy, got the call to help, she brushed her teeth, grabbed her keys and drove to Pasadena, where “the sky was black. It didn't look like morning. ” He said some of the patients he transported were frightened, so he played “very soothing music”.

The rest of Wednesday was “getting everybody into the building safely, getting them settled, then figuring out how to communicate with families and let people know their loved ones are safe,” Kamm said.

Two patients, Valerie Fine and Brenda Robinson, were among the residents of Two Palms who were evacuated twice in as many hours. They ended up at Golden Legacy, where they both praised the efforts of all the people who helped them come to safety.

Unmoved by multiple sclerosis, he doesn't know the names of the responders, but said he wants to “shout out” to all of them.

“I wish I had pictures of the whole thing,” Robinson said. The staff “worked really hard to get us out, get us to safety. Beautiful. “

Peter Lee, a psychologist at Golden Legacy and a Marine reservist, worked with Moya to accommodate the evacuees. He said it may take months for patients and staff to process what they've done, but he's already seen some benefits.

Alex Rubalkova, OK, son-in-law of eviction Valerie, thanks to his father-in-law's assistant administrator, Tony Moya.

Alex Rubalcava, OK, and Eaton fire evacuee Valerie Fine, thank administrator Tony Moya for helping her mother-in-law and others get safely out of Two Palms Care Center in Altadena.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

“I think there's definitely an esprit de corps, a togetherness, a camaraderie that comes from having an experience like this,” Lee said.

“Thank you to my team,” said Rodriguez, and his two Palm employees who rushed to Altadena to help.

Mejia said he lives with his mother, and when he got home after two palms were removed, he hugged her and told her what happened.

“She was proud of me,” Mejia said: “You did something good for a lot of people and for yourself. Thank you for coming back.”

steve.lopez@latimes.com

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