Bus drivers rushed into the Eaton Fire to save 500 seniors
Authorities evacuated dozens of seniors from The Terraces at Park Marino in Pasadena.
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California (KCAL/KCBS) — During the first hours of the destructive Eaton Fire, a group of Pasadena bus drivers headed into the inferno to help evacuate senior living facilities as flames closed in.
Pasadena Transit operations manager Erasmo Rodriguez was the first to jump in a bus that night and race to Washington and Altadena, where he saw a chaotic scene of facilities on fire while firefighters and nurses gathered residents in wheelchairs and gurneys outside.
One of the evacuated facilities included The Terraces at Park Marino. The staff used a 7-Eleven parking lot across the street as a staging point to help drivers easily load roughly 95 residents. In addition to the buses, authorities tried to utilize any available vehicles to quickly evacuate the residents, including an armored vehicle typically used to transport SWAT officers.
“We were just boarding the buses, putting as many people as we could,” Rodriguez said. “It did not matter where they sat on the ground or anywhere; leave your walker or wheelchair behind, fit as many people as we can.”
Maintenance manager Adan Moreira said he also saw the fire on the hillside near his home and came back to work to help. Moreira and his colleagues drove four more buses into black smoke with flames around them.
“It was horrible,” Moreira said. “A lot of black smoke and fire embers hitting the bus. There was a bush in front of the 7-Eleven that caught fire in front of our eyes.”
Moreira said he tried his best to comfort the seniors, many of whom were scared and confused.
Letty Ochoa, Pasadena Transit’s general manager, said she staffed 11 buses and sent them out in a caravan as the Eaton Fire grew. She remembered telling her drivers “You don’t have to do this.”
“They didn’t even think about it,” Ochoa said. “These guys are heroes — true heroes. Because, they’re not trained for that. We’re trained to move the city around but not this.”
Rodriguez refuses to be called that, saying he did what he had to do.
“Someone needs to do it,” Rodriguez said.
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