Sonoma County care facilities largely evacuated during Kincade fire

Two years after the Villa Capri senior care center burned to the ground in the Tubbs fire, the facility and its Varenna at Fountaingrove neighbor were fully evacuated before the Kincade fire could get into Santa Rosa, according to state regulators.

Those two centers, owned by Oakmont Senior Living, were among about 80 in Sonoma County that told the Department of Social Services’ Community Care Licensing Divison they were fully evacuated by 1 p.m. Monday because of the fire, which swelled to 76,000 acres before winds picked up Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Separately, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Health confirmed that Apple Valley Post-Acute Rehab, Healdsburg Senior Living Community, Healdsburg District Hospital and Arbol Residences of Santa Rosa all had been fully evacuated.

Only one senior care facility in Sonoma County had reported being only “partially” evacuated: Primrose Alzheimer’s Living on Guerneville Road in northwest Santa Rosa.

Primrose told regulators that 48 of its 52 residents had evacuated to a facility in Petaluma and three others were with family. Staff were still at the facility with the remaining resident as of Monday afternoon, according to the report. A call and an email to Primrose to clarify whether the remaining resident had evacuated in the last day were not immediately returned.

The executive director of the Primrose facility, John Wotring, said Wednesday that despite what the state’s information indicated, his facility had fully evacuated all 41 of its residents by Sunday afternoon. The single resident was evacuated a few hours after the others, he said.

The state report listed two other facilities as “repopulating:” Sarah’s Bancroft Drive Adult Home, and Sarah’s Senior Residential Care on Clover Drive, both in northwest Santa Rosa. The Bancroft Drive facility reported that its four residents had been relocated, but an employee who answered the phone at the Clover Drive location didn’t seem aware the facility was in a part of the city subject to an evacuation order.

“Are we?” said an employee who answered the phone when told the facility’s address was in an evacuation zone. She said that she and the facility’s four residents were prepared to leave if necessary.

Attempts to reach her supervisor were unsuccessful.

The report compiled by the social services department included, when possible, the approximate location for where residents under evacuation orders had been taken. But it did not provide such information for approximately three dozen facilities, noting that the locations of evacuees, and in some cases how many there were, were “currently unknown.”

More recent evacuation status information was not available Tuesday afternoon. A spokesman for the state Department of Social Services noted that staff had been working long days and had been dealing with slow data loading times as they responded to the consequences of the Kincade fire.

Crista Nelson, executive director of Senior Advocacy Services, a regional agency overseeing the Sonoma County Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, said it was especially important to have plans to evacuate residents skilled nursing facilities and assisted-living centers. They could need special attention due to their medical needs, physical frailty and additional logistical concerns, she said

“It is the most vulnerable population,” she said. “You know about Villa Capri. You know what happened.”

Villa Capri burned to the ground in the Tubbs fire and has since been rebuilt. The facility is on probation after a state investigation determined that staff members at Villa Capri and Varenna abandoned 100 frail elderly people when Fountaingrove’s hill burst into flame.

The failed evacuation inspired a new law, authored by state Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, that increased penalties for caregivers who abandon older people during emergencies. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law in late June.

Villa Capri’s ability to bring in residents was delayed this summer after state officials deemed its initial disaster response plan incomplete. Recent state inspection documents dated Oct. 17 say the “facility was inspected and approved for repopulation.”

Most of its 62 residents were temporarily taken to an Oakmont facility in El Dorado Hills, according to the state report. Most of the 225 residents escorted from Varenna were with family, friends, on vacation or at their second residences, according to the report.

Both the county and the city keep lists of care facilities, including assisted-living sites, and reached out to those places that were subject to evacuation orders and in some cases, assisted with evacuations, according to a city spokeswoman and a county official.

Santa Rosa also has been sent out teams to make sure residents are heeding evacuation orders, said city spokeswoman Adriane Mertens. If officials have to save people who refused to leave, they’ll do that before working to save houses that may be threatened by the Kincade fire.

“We’re trying to get people out now so we’re not scrambling at the last second,” she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Will Schmitt at 707-521-5207 or will.schmitt@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @wsreports.

This story was updated Wednesday to reflect the executive director of the Primrose facility’s comments that his facility was fully evacuated Sunday afternoon.