REACH assists in evacuating patients due to wildfires
EL CENTRO — A firestorm that struck across Northern California beginning Sunday night has been deemed one of the worst in California history.
At least 15 people have been in killed in the firestorm, which has since expanded to more than a dozen wildfires, reported CNN on Tuesday.
Due to the fires, nine have died within Sonoma County while two, a 100-yearold man and his 98-year-old wife, were engulfed by flames in their Napa County home.
20,000 people in total have since been ordered to leave the area and other parts of Northern California.
The wildfires have burned about 115,000 acres as of Tuesday, reported CNN. About 2,000 homes and businesses have been destroyed by the firestorm, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Tuesday.
Since Sunday night, at least two hospitals within the area have been forced to evacuate nearly 200 patients combined. Assisting in the evacuation of the patients has been REACH Air Medical Services.
Donald Wharton, director of Business Strategy for REACH, was awoken at 4 a.m. Monday in his Brawley home to take a corporate conference call.
“Hearing about all the devastation, it’s not the way you want to start your day,” recalled Wharton, who spoke with all of REACH’s leadership during the call to discuss a response plan for those were directly affected.
While no Imperial Valley units or personnel responded to the northern region, the firestorm still struck home for Wharton, as the fires forced an evacuation of the REACH headquarters in Santa Rosa. The headquarters was not directly affected, though all personnel were evacuated or ordered to stay home. Many staff members living in the area lost their homes to the fires, said Wharton. Operations were temporarily relocated to REACH corporate offices in Sacramento.
“This really struck at the core of REACH because the fact [is] that our company was founded, started and is headquartered in Santa Rosa. Never in our wildest dreams [had] we thought anything like this could’ve happened. This is utter devastation. It’s just horrific,” described Wharton, who is also an air ambulance helicopter pilot for REACH. On Monday, REACH assisted in evacuating about 130 patients from Kaiser Permanente’s Santa Rosa medical center and another 70 patients at Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital.
Many of the patients that were flown out of the hospitals were children and burn patients, stated Wharton.
“There are still dozens of patients I’m sure we’re going to be transporting,” explained the Director of Business Strategy. Patients evacuated out of the hospital were flown to hospitals in the bay area.
Three other agencies assisted alongside REACH in the evacuations, including Cal-Star, Cal-Ore Life Flight and helicopters from California Highway Patrol.
“The number one thing is the safety of our crews that are actually in the helicopter. Without their safety first, we can’t help anyone else during these types of operations. Once we’re assured, we then plan how we can get to the areas affected and getting folks either evacuated or in most cases, sick patients that need to be out of the area,” detailed Wharton on the thought process during helicopter evacuations. The Director of Business Strategy enters his tenth year with REACH and has flown for the company for the last seven. Though not of the same magnitude, a similar local evacuation incident that Wharton remembered was the Pioneers Memorial Hospital evacuation in 2012. A series of 4.0 and 5.0-magnitutde earthquakes forced a dozen patients to be airlifted from the hospital to El Centro Regional Medical Center or out of the Valley for care.
The Director of Business Strategy noted that many of his REACH colleagues were directly affected by the firestorm. Wharton also knows of several local families with family members living in the Santa Rosa area that were affected.
“I’ve been a part of multiple conversations, both professional and also personally. It’s not something you should ever in your lifetime be affected by. It’s utterly devastating,” expressed Wharton.