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SEELEY – Despite being located well within the evacuation area established in the wake of the June 29 fire in Seeley, the owners of an assisted living facility here said they failed to be notified of the evacuation order.

As embers rained down from the heavens onto the township of Seeley during the fire, Imperial County Fire Department called for the evacuation of any building west of San Diego Avenue, using the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) and through posts on social media.

IPAWS is the federal government’s national system for local alerting that provides emergency and life-saving information to the public through mobile phones in the affected area.

Keith and Lisa Baird, owners of the Baird Board and Care Facility, reported in an interview on Tuesday, July 5 that they only received one alert, which did not call for evacuation, and received no other notifications of the evacuation. The facility is located at 1937 Mt. Signal Avenue, about a block west of San Diego Avenue.

“We left our gate open for a long time, thinking that if nothing else the sheriff or Fire Department would knock on our door, but no one ever came. We ended up staying, and found out about the evacuation later,” Lisa said.

The Baird Board and Care Facility cares for individuals with disabilities who cannot care for themselves. Currently they have four clients, who have conditions like Down syndrome and autism spectrum disorder.

While evacuating their clients does come with challenges, Lisa said they were prepared to do so, having had their clients each pack a bag in anticipation of such an event and a planned evacuation point in Yuma to go to.

Lisa added that while she tried to help her clients understand what was going on with the fire, they did not seem to fully grasp the severity of the situation and so expressed no fear of the fire.

One of their clients, who is only identified as Isaac for privacy purposes, laughed and just said “no” when asked if he was afraid during the fire, which had burned approximately 226 acres.

In addition to the residents of the facility, Keith, Lisa, and their son also live on the premises. They also own property next to the Seeley County Water District, which stretches down to the edge of the New River and its river bottom, where the fire took place.

Keith also expressed frustration over the fact that there was a fire in the first place, laying the blame on the Imperial Irrigation District, which he said owns most of the land along the New River or has easements on the property they don’t own.

“If you are going to own all that land, and have easements through other people’s land, you should be maintaining it. There is dried brush, trash, and tires all along the river, why aren’t they out there cleaning it up? It’s clearly a fire hazard,” Keith said.

Following the outbreak of the fire, authorities determined that it had been started by an illegal burn at a nearby residence.

Unsung Heroes of Seeley Fire

The fire had a single injury reported, county Deputy Fire Chief Salvador Flores said during an interview on Tuesday, July 5, A firefighter was burned by boiling water which erupted from one of the fire engine’s pumps, Flores said.

The name of the firefighter was not released, though Flores was able to confirm that it was a county firefighter who sustained first- and second-degree burns.

The firefighter was treated at El Centro Regional Medical Center and was released that same evening.

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Complaints about the IID not maintaining the land along the New River notwithstanding, the IID was among those who protected the township of Seeley from imminent danger. 

Led by Emergency Service Coordinator Robert Amparano, who also serves as an Imperial City Council member, IID brought in four water trucks that continuedly sprayed the perimeter of the town to prevent the dry brush and the prefabricated homes in town from catching fire from the falling embers.

“There were several times we thought we were going to lose half the town to the falling embers,” Deputy Chief Flores said.

Flores also cited the American Red Cross as being among those who stepped up to support the Imperial County Fire Department’s efforts to fight the fire. The organization’s representatives manned the evacuation centers, which were originally placed at Sunbeam Lake but were later moved to Wilson Junior High in El Centro as the fire continued to spread. 

The Red Cross also took care of the firefighters themselves, by providing them blaze with both water and snacks, so they could remain hydrated and full of energy.

Flores also noted that Deputy County Executive Officer Esperanza Colio Warren was also heavily involved with the incident, despite it being her last week serving within that role. Colio recently accepted the city manager position for the city of Calexico and is scheduled to start mid-July.

“I read somewhere that she went on the orders of the county CEO. That’s not true, she came out completely on her own to help. She has always been very dedicated to the people of Imperial County,” Flores said.

IID could not be reached for comments.