California Wildfires

Video captures rescue of 100-year-old woman during Eaton Fire evacuation

The elderly woman said she didn't hear calls to evacuate from her retirement community because she was charging her hearing aids.

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Body camera footage captured the moment sheriff’s deputies rescued a 100-year-old woman as flames ripped through the Eaton Fire in Altadena. Robert Kovacik reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025.

Body cam footage recorded by sheriff’s deputies captured the moment they rescued a 100-year-old woman during frantic evacuations at the height of the Eaton Fire in Altadena.

At a seemingly empty retirement home, deputies Nicholas Martinez and Quinn Alkonis raced through the halls and barged into different rooms to ensure no one was inside. The windows glowed orange from the flames of the destructive fire as they continued to comb through the MonteCedro Retirement Community.

Suddenly, the two heard a soft voice.

“Hello? Hello? Where you at?” one deputy can be heard saying as the pair searched for the source of the voice.

Moments later, they encountered a resident heading their way with the assistance of her chair.

“Oh hi! OK, perfect,” Deputy Martinez says in the video. “Is there anyone else with you?”

“I’ve been trying to find a way out,” the woman responded.

“Let’s get you out of here,” Martinez responded.

“Don’t lose me, I’m 100,” the woman said.

Both deputies were able to safely get the woman out of the building. She later explained to them that she had not heard anything about the sudden call for evacuations because her hearing aids were charging.

In a statement, MonteCedro Retirement Community said its staff made two tours through the building and triggered the fire alarm after its neighborhood was ordered to evacuate. It said two independent living residents "were not encountered and did not make it to the buses."

“Once it was clear that MonteCedro had to be vacated, the ECS and MonteCedro team had one goal—the safe evacuation of every resident,” CEO James Rothrock said in a statement. “Working closely with the Sheriff’s Department and Fire Department, we did that. Successfully moving nearly 200 people, some with cognitive issues or other impairments, away from their homes in a couple of hours is cause to give thanks. Having said that, we have discovered gaps in our planning and execution that we are working to understand and correct. Like hundreds of agencies and institutions in the Los Angeles area, we were faced with an unprecedented challenge."

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