“Minutes, Not Hours:” Staff, Residents, City and Community Response to Spokane Fires

On September 28, Rockwood Retirement Communities hosted a Long-Term Care “Washout” to discuss the response to the Spokane Fires, share stories, best practices and lessons learned to help prepare for the next crisis. In attendance were first responders, public health and emergency officials, and long-term care staff from Rockwood, Residential Care Services, Brookdale Nine Mile and Avista Senior Living. WHCA staff were grateful for the opportunity to attend, hear stories about the incredible resilience of the Spokane community and inform our association’s on-going efforts to spotlight the incredible work of local long-term care teams for protecting the health and safety of their residents even as the crisis impacted their own lives. Learn more about WHCA’s efforts to raise money for those affected by the recent fires in our official press release.

A common theme from the discussion and presentations was how when the Spokane-area fires jumped the river, the timeline for long-term care providers in Emergency Response Plans collapsed. Evacuation plans built around hours suddenly had to work in minutes. Procedures practiced in hundreds of table-top exercises became rapidly executed realities to keep staff and residents safe, along with in-real-time improvisation to help safely identify residents’ needs, secure shelter, food, water and medical necessities.

Spokane Health and Rehabilitation had less than an hour to move 110 residents, only about 20 of whom could walk on their own. Staff did it in approximately 46 minutes, even as some staff struggled to get to the facility as roughly 70,000 members of the Spokane community rushed to evacuate the area. With traffic too heavy for emergency vehicle agreements to work, community members stopped traffic to help.

Brookdale Nine Mile had about 30 minutes to evacuate some 50 memory care residents after the fire jumped the river. At Avista Senior Living, a fire-retardant drop coated their building, buses and cars in pink, and its nearby safe zone was soon threatened too, forcing a second move. About half the residents went home with family, 20 residents living with dementia were treated to breakfast at a local IHOP the next day, and others moved to sister communities in Yakima and Ellensburg – residents returned home only last week. Rockwood Retirement Communities, with its north campus in the fire’s path, relocated about 70 assisted living residents using its own resources.

Responders were stretched too. Spokane Fire District 9, where two of the three fires started, saw about 7,000 911 calls that day, compared with roughly 1,000 on a typical day. Spokane Fire Department crews fought 40 hours straight before relief arrived, and the Spokane Regional Health District handed out 34,000 masks, 900 goggles and 144 air cleaners.

Providers pointed to several lessons:

• Plan for minutes, not hours. Evacuations moved faster than crisis plans anticipated.
• Drill it physically. In a crisis, staff fall back on what they’ve practiced, so hands-on drills beat tabletop exercises.
• Prepare identification in advance. Pre-made bracelets and glow-in-the-dark necklaces set residents apart from other evacuees.
• Stock emergency kits. Include extra water, radios and power strips for oxygen concentrators.
• Look farther out for safe zones. A site close to the building may end up in the fire’s path too.
• WHCA thanks every caregiver, responder and community member who stepped up to keep Spokane’s older adults safe.