60 Santa Rosa seniors narrowly escaped the Tubbs Fire — lawsuits and tighter regulations followed

Almost everything that occurred in the aftermath of Oakmont of Villa Capri’s destruction during the Tubbs Fire was messy and contentious.

Family members complained that Oakmont Senior Living failed to tell them where their loved ones at the high-end 72-bed assisted living and memory care home had been moved, triggering frantic searches. And relatives were blocked from visiting the charred site to recover any possessions that might have survived in the rubble.

On Oct. 17, nine days after the evacuation, the owners brought in heavy equipment to clear the site.

Those accusations were part of a lawsuit initiated by family members, for claims that included wrongful death, elder abuse, negligence, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The lawsuit also alleged that affiliate Oakmont Management Group sent Villa Capri employees a letter offering up to $1,500 to claim they were unaware the company had broken any laws the night of the fires.

The suit was ultimately joined by 17 plaintiffs, representing 10 residents. Mark Allen, Melissa Langhals and Joey Horsman, the people who had spearheaded the rescue of some 60 seniors along with Mark’s wife Kathy, all signed on. The families eventually settled with Oakmont Senior Living and its affiliates for an undisclosed sum in August 2018.

The hasty debris removal also triggered an investigation by city and county officials, who said Oakmont did not have a permit to clear the sites before it could be checked for human remains and toxicity.

While Villa Capri was destroyed, a larger, adjacent facility, 322-bed Oakmont of Varenna, also owned by Oakmont Senior Living, was spared in the flames. All residents at both facilities survived the fires, though plaintiffs who sued Oakmont alleged that trauma from the evacuations hastened the deaths of three residents.

The state report, released in September 2018, 11 months after the fire, confirmed most of the families’ central complaints. It recommended that Oakmont Senior Living and its affiliated groups have their care licenses revoked, and that the two facilities’ executive directors at the time — Deborah Smith at Villa Capri and Nathan Condie at Varenna — have their licenses stripped for life.

Two months after that report landed, the office of Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch launched an investigation into what happened at Villa Capri and neighboring Varenna.

Ravitch declined to press charges. The Oakmont affiliates almost immediately settled with the DA and then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for $500,000 to cover investigation expenses.

In a sharp pivot from the company’s earlier public defense of its employees’ actions as “heroic,” Oakmont Senior Living officials also admitted for the first time that staff members at the two care homes had abandoned elderly and infirm residents as the Tubbs Fire closed in on the two facilities.

An agreement with the California Department of Social Services allowed Oakmont to remain licensed for its elder facilities, contingent on safety guarantees.

‘It changed them’

Sonoma County developer Bill Gallaher, co-founder and CEO of Gallaher Companies, which owns Oakmont Senior Living, spent at least $1.7 million on an unsuccessful recall campaign against Ravitch in 2021. The Gallahers did not specifically mention Villa Capri or Varenna in a recall petition filed with the county elections office, but did claim that Ravitch has “abused her powers to pursue personal vendettas.”

In June 2019, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that increases civil penalties for caregivers who abandon elders during an emergency. The bill was authored by State Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, who pointed to events at the two care facilities as the impetus.

Beth Eurotas-Steffy, whose mother, Alice Eurotas, was one of those evacuated, wants more protections for seniors. She is hoping to meet next week with representatives of State Sen. Mike McGuire’s office, she said. To be discussed: Legislation that would add assisted living centers to the category of California elder care sites mandated to have working backup power.

Eurotas-Steffy has spent much of the past five years fighting to recognize the four people she calls heroes for the risks they endured to evacuate Villa Capri residents, and to bring accountability to the company that admitted to abandoning them.

She can’t let go of the anger she feels toward Oakmont Senior Living, a company that operates 57 elder care facilities in California and two more in Nevada. That includes Villa Capri, which reopened in 2019.

Her mother, now 89, is one of the few Villa Capri evacuees alive today, but she hasn’t been the same.

“I don’t want to sugarcoat it,” Eurotas-Steffy said. “I’m forever grateful to the heroes who risked their lives to save my mom and all the others. But the victims all suffered immeasurable stress and trauma, and were never the same, because the company responsible for their care let them down.”

You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Skinny_Post.