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Rancho Bernardo- In the early morning of Monday October 22, Casa de las Campanas (Casa), an upscale retirement community located in Rancho Bernardo, was faced with the dilemma of whether or not to evacuate its 600 residents as flames from the San Diego wildfires approached the building.
The San Diego Police Department sent school buses to help evacuate should Casa decide to take that measure; however, after much deliberation between the San Diego Police Department, the San Diego Fire Department and Casa administration it was decided the best possible option was to “shelter in place.”
“The Fire Department told us it was less risky to stay than to evacuate all 600 residents,” said Casa Facilities Director Mike Conery. “There was no more fuel to burn around the community and we had their commitment to protect us in every possible way.”
As the fires began to spread closer to the northern side of Casa, staff evacuated residents from Casa’s northern building to the safety of the front building. Casa’s dedicated staff went even further to protect their residents by using water hoses to help tame the fire.
The San Diego Fire Department followed through with their promise by supplying a helicopter, which had the approaching fire out within an hour.
Due to poor air quality, Casa’s special care residents and nursing care residents were evacuated to facilities where they could receive proper care while gas and power was cut off at Casa. Independent living residents were able to voluntarily evacuate, but most decided the best decision was to stay in their home.
“I believe Casa made the right decision to not evacuate,” said resident Bob McKahan. “At our age we wouldn’t do well sleeping on a cot at a stadium. I would rather be at my home, especially since staff still provided us with three meals per day and excellent care under strained circumstances.”
Many Casa employees continued to report to work, even though many were evacuated from their homes and some did not even know if their own home had withstood the fire.
Three meals were still served every day. Back-up generators were brought in to provide lighting in the interior hallways, stairwells and common areas as well as to power the phone systems, daily status check systems, dining room refrigerator and HEPA filters in the skilled nursing centers. Staff visited each resident daily to administer wellness checks and even removed perishable food items from each individual apartment to ensure residents were well in such stressful times.
Casa’s management company Life Care Services (LCS) and fellow retirement community Morningside at Fullerton provided Casa residents with flashlights and batteries. Nursing staff from various LCS communities flew in to San Diego to assist in providing excellent care while Casa was running on limited staff. Dallas Retirement Village, a LCS managed community, supplied Casa with their Executive Director Dave Parrett for additional support.
On October 27, power was restored to Casa. A sense of normalcy has been restored and those who voluntarily evacuated have begun to return to their home.
After a sterilization and sanitation clean up of the Health Center and Special Care Residence, Casa began readmitting the evacuated residents on Monday, October 29.
Executive Director Jill Sorenson has taken many steps to ensure resident safety in the aftermath of the Rancho Bernardo fire. Past Casa Administrator Kim Finch-Dominy, who now serves as Executive Director at LCS community Harbour’s Edge, arrived at Casa Monday to assist with post-event analysis and follow-up.
“We will be changing out heating, ventilation and air conditioning filters,” said Sorenson. “We are also working with a local hygienist to test and monitor air quality across the campus.”
“We couldn’t be more pleased with how Casa has handled the situation,” said resident Adrienne Kronenberger.
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