A Northern California man who was on oxygen had the power shut off as a precaution but that rendered his oxygen tank useless and he died within minutes.
The4 family had a generator but by the time they got it running, it was too late. Robert Mardis Sr was asleep when the power went off and he died almost immediately after that.
California blamed the wildfires on faulty PG&E equipment and they are being sued over it. This year, they decided that blacking out 1.5 million people would save them from a repeat of last year.
FOX 40 reported:
The family of 67-year-old Robert Mardis Sr. believes he would still be alive if PG&E didn’t shut off their power this week in Pollock Pines.
“He had health issues,” Mardis’ daughter, Marie Aldea, told FOX40. “He had really bad COPD, which didn’t help, and he had congestive heart failure and other health issues, but the power going off and him not being able to get to his oxygen is, I believe, is what did it.”
“I went down and check on him at 11:30 or so and he was sound asleep, the power was still on at that point,” Aldea said.
But early Wednesday, Aldea says her family was jolted awake.
“We were all asleep, we heard my mom scream. She was crying,” she said. “My dad went down in her arms, he was going for this oxygen machine.”
Family members performed CPR on Mardis, but responding paramedics pronounced him dead. Aldea says her father’s health issues didn’t help, but she believes part of the blame is on PG&E.
“I don’t understand why they turned off the power,” she said. “No winds at all. And because of that, my father is gone. Blaming them is not going to bring my father back, unfortunately.”
Aldea believes her father lost oxygen in his sleep and several minutes passed before he woke up to reach for his back-up tank. It was within those crucial minutes she believes he died, which she believes could have been avoided with power.