A first floor fire at a local senior living community in August turned into a moment of unity as staff and community members rallied to evacuate, care for and temporarily relocate nearly two dozen senior citizens in a short span of time.
The fire first broke out at Revere La Jolla — which specializes in memory care, with its 20 patients all having some form of dementia — at around 4:40 p.m. on Aug. 16 at 7630 Fay Ave.
Revere executive director Risa Jester described the day of the fire as otherwise completely normal. But after seeing a fire alarm alert on her phone, she reviewed footage to see the cause of it.
“We had a floor-to-ceiling fish tank, and the chiller component on the fish tank caught on fire,” Jester said. “One of my staff members tried to put it out with a fire extinguisher, but the fire was just too large to do that.”
Conditions quickly worsened from there.
“The whole bottom floor was just consumed with black smoke,” she continued. “There were family members downstairs … attempting to put the fire out as well, and it just became really clear that this was an evacuation effort and not (a time) to try to put the fire out anymore.”
The elevator, programmed to stop when the fire alarm is active, turned off. Thus, Revere staff carried the residents — some of which use wheelchairs, and others that use walkers — down the back stairs and into a designated evacuation spot.
Brigid Christianson, whose father has lived at Revere for four years, learned about the fire when she crossed over Pearl Street and saw firetrucks in the area.
When she arrived at the memory care center, and standing alongside residents and staff, she noticed a handful of neighboring businesses and residents stepping in to help.
“We were seeing it firsthand — first of all, the first responders and how they were directing everybody and keeping everybody safe, and so quickly, employees from The Lot (movie theater across the street) started bringing over chairs, then all of a sudden … one of the owners of The Flower Pot (coffee shop) comes down with huge jugs of lemonade and baked goods,” Christianson said.
“It was so hot out so we wanted to give them a safe haven and some cold drinks,” Flower Pot co-owner is Gloria Serna said. “We closed the cafe at 6 p.m. that day so that (Revere residents) could come over to use the bathroom and take their medications. We wanted to make sure that they had something to drink and something to eat.”
The hands-on effort also included staff from The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, who handed out water bottles to residents and their caretakers; the Red Cross, which came to ensure residents had adequate supplies; and staff from TLC Roasters, who lent an additional helping hand.
Due to the smoke and water damage to the property, local memory care centers Chateau La Jolla, ActivCare Mission Bay, White Sands La Jolla and The Cove at La Jolla housed Revere residents for two days. They were then cleared to return Aug. 18.
Donne, who lives at Revere La Jolla, returns home after being one of 20 residents relocated to a nearby retirement community after the Aug. 16 fire. (Risa Jester)
“La Jolla is a small town with a big heart, and our neighbors truly demonstrated that,” Jester said. “I’m especially proud of our dedicated staff, whose care for our residents outweighed concern for their own safety. Their instinct was to put our residents’ well-being first.”
Christianson added, “Obviously, nobody wants a fire, especially at a memory care unit. So it was frightening, but I guess what stays with me afterwards isn’t the fire. It’s just watching how quickly the people of La Jolla and the other memory care units in the area … they just noticed that a vulnerable group of their neighbors needed help, and they just started helping.”