In the days after the fires erupted, family members described agonizing efforts to search for their elderly loved ones. Charles never left her side, not even to grab dinner with their son, who visited two to three times a week.Įarlier this week, Vice President Mike Pence said it’s “heartbreaking to think that many of the fallen represent our most vulnerable, in some cases senior citizens who simply were not able to escape the flames that overcame their homes.”Īs of late Thursday, about 400 people remain missing in Sonoma County. Sara’s health had severely declined since she suffered a stroke five years ago.
Their son said their family was struggling with the tragedy, but they also felt a sense of peace that the couple died together. She jumped over a collapsed fence and escaped, just before the roof crashed down. Without electricity, she could not open the garage door to get Sara out. Sandovar called out to Charles, but there was no response. In a matter of minutes, black smoke had filled the house.Ī pickup truck rests beside a row of charred trees in the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa. She ran to lift Sara, 98, out of bed and onto her wheelchair. Sandovar looked out the back window and saw that the home’s fence was on fire. On Sunday night when the Atlas fire erupted, Sara and Charles Rippey were home in Napa with their caretaker, Maria Sandovar. The teams assess the needs of seniors and those with disabilities, working to get them the services and equipment they need.
The state Department of Social Services subsequently launched functional assessment service teams, which consist of government workers and volunteers who deploy to shelters to observe conditions and identify what’s missing. The Butte fire that year didn’t spread as quickly, though the two people killed were seniors: a one-legged 65-year-old man who stayed home to protect his property and an 82-year-old man.Ī 2008 report criticized disaster response systems in California.
They were a 72-year-old woman with multiple sclerosis trapped in her home, and three men over the age of 65, two of whom decided not to evacuate. That was the case two years ago when the fast-moving Valley fire ripped through Lake County and took the lives of four people.
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