‘This Is A Once-In-A-Hundred-Years Event’: Fire Forces Evacuation Of Hospitals, Clinic Closures
But while the disaster has turned Santa Rosa’s health care sector on its head, the people who work in it are doing everything they can to get things back on track.
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Santa Rosa Firestorm Tests Local Health Care Services
In his 40 years as a hospital leader, Mike Purvis has never witnessed the forced evacuation of a major hospital, let alone two. But that’s exactly what happened when the worst firestorm in Santa Rosa history tore through the northern end of the city, forcing not only the closure of both Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente hospitals, but also shuttering local clinics, skilled nursing facilities and medical offices. ...Purvis’ home was among the hundreds of homes destroyed in Santa Rosa’s Fountaingrove neighborhood, many of them belonging to hospital executives, physicians, nurses and other medical staff. Todd Salnas, who oversees Memorial Hospital as president of St. Joseph Health Sonoma County, and Judy Coffey, area manager for Kaiser’s operations in Sonoma and Marin counties, also lost their homes in the fires. Up to 100 members of Kaiser’s staff lost homes in the fires, a spokesman said. (Espinoza, 10/11)
Sacramento Bee:
Smoke From Northern California Wildfires Blankets Sacramento With Unhealthy Smoke
Sacramento Valley and foothills residents awoke Wednesday to the heavy smell of smoke, hazy brown skies and ashes on car windshields – the result of nearly two dozen Northern California wildfires, including the Atlas Fire, which exploded overnight in the hills west of Fairfield. ...Air meters throughout the region registered unhealthy levels of particulate matter from Vacaville and Davis in the west valley to higher foothill elevations in Grass Valley and Colfax early Wednesday. (Bizjak, Anderson and Glover, 10/11)