Jean Bruce Poole did not realize when having breakfast in her independent living apartment on Jan. 8 that the Eaton fire had torn through much of her Altadena neighborhood and was nearing the MonteCedro retirement home. Nor did the 100-year-old, whose hearing aids weren't charged because of power outages, know that almost everyone else had left. Eventually, using her walker, Poole tried to make her way through smoky hallways, where—three hours after the place had been otherwise evacuated—two sheriff's deputies encountered her on their final pass through the building, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Body camera video shows the deputies first coming across another resident who was trying to walk her dog, then spotting Poole on the third floor of the dark building. She can be heard asking the deputies for help, saying, "Don't lose me!" Her son had called the home the night before and been assured that the fire wasn't close and that the building could withstand it anyway. When he called back in the morning, he was told the center had been evacuated but that his mother was unaccounted for. As he raced to the home, he got a call—his mother told him she and the other woman were OK and had been taken to the Pasadena Convention Center.
"It was a breakdown, they failed to react and failed to prepare," John Ward said of the staff members. "They had no extra staff … no family notification." Officials at the home said all rooms had been checked, which Ward disputes, saying his mother was in hers the whole time. Ward told the Times that the near-tragedy demands a full review and "concrete change" to ensure nothing similar happens again. "They left my mom," he said. (More Eaton Fire stories.)
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