Filipina caregiver a fatality in Northern California fires

Northern California wildfire. AP PHOTO

SAN FRANCISCO — Teresa Santos, a 50-year-old Filipina, was caregiver for 90-year-old Sally Lewis of Napa, California. Santos refused to leave Lewis during the devastating Northern California wildfires of mid-October and perished along with Lewis.

Windermere Tirados, Lewis’ daughter, received a call about a fire near her mother’s home. When Windermere and her husband, Marlon, reached it home, it was fully engulfed in flames.

“She didn’t save herself, she stayed with my mother until the end,” Windermere said of Santos, according to a Los Angeles Times report.

Santos lived with Lewis five days a week, working as her caregiver for about a year, the report said. But Santos didn’t have a car and was usually dropped off by her sister at Lewis’ house.

Santos was a “sweet, quiet person and very loving. Very loyal caregiver, very wonderful person. She was an angel sent to us definitely, to take care of my mom,” Windermere Lewis told the Los Angeles Times.