Viral video of 100-year-old woman left behind during Eaton Fire prompts state investigation

It's been weeks since video of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies finding a 100-year-old woman who was left behind when her elderly living center evacuated the Eaton Fire has gone viral, and state officials have now launched an investigation into the matter. 

That video, which was released three weeks after the fire erupted in Eaton Canyon on Jan. 7, was taken eight hours after the initial evacuation order went out for the area where the MonteCedro Retirement Community is located. 

With residents getting ready to move back into the campus, which survived the fire, some families say they need to see immediate changes before allowing them to return, including the woman's son, who says they still haven't received an apology. 

"I have said to her, 'Mom, they left you for dead,'" said John Ward, whose mother is seen in the deputies' body camera video. 

She was not among the more than 200 residents that were evacuated from the center on Jan. 8, when flames began to close in on the area. Still, Ward says his mother plans to move back in when the time comes, despite his own concerns. 

KCAL News has been contacted by multiple family members with parents and grandparents at MonteCedro, and they say that leadership of the facility, as well as their parent company Episcopal Communities and Services, has been negligent to this point. 

"They are so great, but in that 24 hours was such a fail, you know, that's when it really matters," Ward said. 

Those family members have pointed to the Executive Director of MonteCedro, David Weidert, who left in the middle of the crisis. He's among the leaders of the two companies that have thus far declined interview with KCAL News. However, he addressed his decision in a town hall Zoom meeting earlier this week. 

"Around 10 o'clock, if i can remember, at that particular time we were not ordered to evacuate the community and we were taking additional precautions," he said. "Hindsight is always great."

Despite his remarks, one MonteCedro resident says some of the other people living on site received evacuation orders as soon as 9 p.m. 

"There were embers flying in the air by the building and he left in his car, which means he literally drove through everything and didn't have the forethought to go back and say, 'Okay, this is a problem,'" Ward said. 

A voicemail from one resident, left in his daughter's inbox just before 5:30 a.m., claims that the fire is burning next to their building while he's still inside. Shortly afterward — and 12 hours after the fire erupted — video from that same resident's cellphone shows burning building on Lake Avenue as they drove away from the building. 

"They never told the people. They didn't knock on doors and say get a to go bag," Ward said. "It was fire department, 'Get out, we're leaving.'"

In a statement shared last week, Episcopal Communities and Services shared a statement after the body camera video was released. It said in part, that their team and fire personnel searched every room of the property. 

"Fire personnel and MonteCedro team members made two complete tours through the building, which included triggering the fire alarm and inspecting every residence," the statement said. 

Ward's mother wasn't alone in being discovered eight hours later, at around 9:30 a.m. the next day. 

He is among the many families asking that changes be made to the facility's evacuation plans and safety measures, which have been called into question after minutes of a wellness committee meeting from Oct. 2023 were reviewed. They show that MonteCedro leaders opted to revoke access from the fire department's key fobs to resident apartments. This decision was made after firefighters went into the wrong room during a prior incident. 

In response to request for comment, an ECS spokesperson shared a statement, which said, "The organization is committed to a deep, unvarnished review by a nationally recognized life safety firm."

The state's investigation is being conducted by the Department of Social Services.