Disabled Eaton Fire victim escaped deadly flames in wheelchair

A couple who escaped the deadly flames of the fast-moving, wind-driven Eaton Fire are hoping their survival story will bring attention to the needs of those with disabilities during natural disasters.  

Galen Buckwalter, who is paralyzed from the waist down, told KTLA’s Rachel Menitoff that he watched as the glow of the wildfire raced down the San Gabriel Mountains toward their home in the foothill community of Sierra Madre.  

Buckwalter, who is paralyzed from the waist down and lives with his wife and caretaker, Deborah, knew they needed to leave immediately, but there was a problem. The wheelchair accessible van the couple typically use for transportation was in the shop and there was no way a rideshare service could make it into the evacuation zone.  

The only option Buckwalter, who uses a motorized wheelchair to get around and is a research participant at the California Institute of Technology with a brain implant, was to set aside his emotions and get out of the area using his wheelchair.  

“The winds were just howling,” he recalled. “It was bracing to be in the wind.”  

Deborah told KTLA that separating in that to get to safety was difficult.  

“It was just really hard to watch him go off and do that and for us not to be together to face whatever the next steps were,” she explained.  

Buckwalter, who said he didn’t let his emotions get the best of him during his escape, drove a mile through the dark, debris-covered streets to get to safety.  

“I felt almost a strange sense of flow, almost a calm,” he said. “I had a mission, had a goal and it was just a matter of executing it.” 

In another harrowing escape, staff at The Pasadena Park Skilled Nursing Center evacuated 93 residents to safety, many of whom are also wheelchair users.  

Now, FEMA has set up teams to help people who lost their homes and are displaced because of the wildfires, including those with disabilities, whether that’s a physical limitation or someone in need of American Sign Language or language translation.  

“We provide as much access as we can,” Laura Forbes, a communications access specialist with FEMA, told KTLA. “We have wheelchairs if a wheelchair is needed to get you in and out of the center to get you registered.”  

At least two other victims, one in the Eaton Fire and another in the Palisades Fire, lived with cerebral busy and died as flames overtook their homes.  

The Buckwalters are now hoping that from here on out elected officials holding daily press conferences will address the needs of those in the disability community.  
“We can’t have accessible vans going up and down every single street, but we can have plans, and we seem completely unprepared,” Buckwalter added.  

As for others with disability, Forbes is incredibly knowledgeable about special needs accommodation and can be reached at 202-705-9500.