‘Don’t lose me’: Claremonter saves elderly women from Eaton Fire
LA County Sheriff’s Deputy Quinn Alkonis helped to save two elderly Altadena women from the rapidly advancing Eaton Fire on January 8. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo
by Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com
While it’s true not all heroes wear capes, some certainly sport sheriff’s deputy badges.
On January 8, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies Quinn Alkonis and Nicholas Martinez saved two elderly women from certain catastrophe as the Eaton Fire advanced on their Altadena nursing home. Claremont native Alkonis, 31, was raised near two of the city’s most recognizable senior communities, Claremont Manor and Pilgrim Place.
“I grew up around that, and my grandparents lived in a facility like that,” Alkonis said. “To think about them being left behind, and to be able to be the one to get that person out, that felt pretty good. Because I knew these ladies. They’re somebody’s family.”
Alkonis and Martinez were assigned to help with Eaton Fire evacuation efforts in Altadena, some 30 miles away from their Carson substation on January 8.
“We drive up to Altadena and … we could see the huge smoke plumes,” Alkonis said.
They arrived about 9:30 a.m. to check that no one had been left behind at a large senior living community, Monte Cedro, 2212 El Molino Ave., which had been evacuated earlier in the day.
In this body camera image from January 8, LA County Sheriff’s Deputy Quinn Alkonis and her partner discover a 100-year-old woman who had been left behind at an evacuated senior living community in Altadena, as the Eaton Fire advances toward the facility. Image/courtesy of LA County Sheriff’s Department
“When we got there it seemed pretty deserted already,” Alkonis said. “Even the senior living homes seemed pretty empty. But then we saw this old lady walk out and she was walking her dog, and we’re like, ‘What are you doing?’”
The woman told the deputies matter-of-factly that she was taking her dog for a walk.
“She had no idea what was happening,” Alkonis said.
They gathered some of the woman’s things and asked her if she knew of any other people still in the five-story facility. Houses across the street from Monte Cedro were on fire. With smoke seeping into the facility, the deputies had the woman wait in the lobby for emergency personnel to arrive.
They then searched frantically, checking about 60 rooms for signs of life.
“Once we got to the third floor, we’re searching and we’re calling out ‘Hey! Anybody here? Anybody here?’” Alkonis said. “And finally, we hear a response. That’s when we ran down the hall and found the second woman.”
“I’ve been trying to find a way out,” the 100-year-old woman told them. “Don’t lose me.” She said she had been charging her hearing aid at the time of the evacuation and didn’t hear calls to exit the building. She was also unaware of the approaching fire.
The deputies quickly led the women outside to waiting emergency personnel, who transported them to a temporary shelter. They continued searching, but thankfully found no more folks who had been left behind.
In this body camera image from January 8, LA County Sheriff’s Deputy Quinn Alkonis and her partner help a woman and her dog who had been left behind at an evacuated senior living facility in Altadena. Image/courtesy of LA County Sheriff’s Department
Alkonis said the experience, while heightened and certainly dangerous, has served to sharpen her law enforcement toolbox.
“As deputies, we know that there’s risk and there’s danger, but as long as we use our training and our experience and do the best that we can we’ll be okay,” she said. “And for future fires, it’s a good experience to have that kind of urgency in that kind of situation. It’s something I hadn’t experienced, responding to a fire, and I know that I’ll be more prepared next time it happens.”
Though Alkonis has now shared her story with the Los Angeles Times, KTLA, ABC7 New York, and the Courier, she downplayed the drama.
“This was just another day,” she said. “But we are glad that it resulted in two ladies being saved.”
The LA County Sherriff’s Department released body camera footage from the incident on January 28, prompting praisefrom Sheriff Robert Luna, but also raising questions about the evacuation efforts at Monte Cedro.
In a January 29 statement, President and CEO of Monte Cedro parent company Episcopal Communities and ServicesJames Rothrock wrote that Monte Cedro management utilized eight city and two facility buses to move residents and staff to the Pasadena Convention Center in the early morning hours of January 8. “Two independent living residents were not encountered and did not make it to the buses,” he wrote. “The two residents were settled in other senior living communities that evening and are doing well. It is unclear why they were not encountered in the first or second sweeps of the building.”
Rothrock added, “… 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, and our response to it merits a deep, unvarnished review.”
The California Department of Social Services is investigating the evacuation effort at Monte Cedro.
The cause of the Eaton Fire, which burned 14,021 acres, destroyed more than 6,000 homes, and claimed the lives of 17 people, remains under investigation.
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Thank you so much for your amazing work! I love our elderly community and I am so glad you were looking out for them. <3