‘Always the first to help’: Covelo remembers former fire chief killed in hit-and-run
Bill Baker [Photo from Leila Babcock]
According to the California Highway Patrol’s Garberville office, the collision occurred around 7:59 p.m. Oct. 12, north of Poonkinney Road. Investigators said a 2019 Toyota 4Runner driven by 20-year-old Sandra Yocselin Acosta Deloera, of Covelo, struck Baker as he walked within the southbound lane of the highway.
For reasons still under investigation, Acosta Deloera allegedly fled the scene. The highway was closed for roughly four and a half hours while emergency crews attempted lifesaving measures, but Baker was pronounced dead at the scene.
About two hours later, CHP dispatchers received a call from a family member of the driver reporting the crash. Officers, assisted by the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, located both Acosta Deloera and the vehicle at her residence. The investigation remains active, and anyone with information is asked to contact the CHP Garberville Office at (707) 932-6100.
Brittany Glass, a close friend who described herself as Baker’s “niece by choice,” said he had just received medical treatment earlier that day and was reportedly being delivered home by a medical transport service when the crash occurred. She said the hospital told Baker not to call her for a ride because “they had a service that would deliver him to his door.”
Glass said Baker dedicated his life to the fire and ambulance services in Covelo, mentoring generations of volunteers and caring for his neighbors with unwavering commitment. “He was always the first to help, no matter the problem,” she said. “He delivered babies of babies he had once helped deliver in the ambulance.”
She added that while Baker faced challenges in recent years, the community never stopped supporting him. “He had a way with people,” she said. “Most of the community knew him their entire life.”
The California Highway Patrol has not yet announced whether any charges have been filed.
Earlier:
- [UPDATE 8:44 p.m.] Fatal Hit and Run Near Covelo; Suspect vehicle Sought
- Pedestrian Killed in SR-162 Hit-and-Run, Driver Interviewed by CHP
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This is deeply upsetting news.
Please keep us posted as more information comes to light.
What a shame
RIP sir
Oh my. The twisted multiple layers of this are going to be sad, shocking, eye opening. In the road vs delivered to door??? Texting in that last section before reception is lost? Says road closed 4 hours and 2 hours later her family called CHP. Was it 4 hours later or 6? He was not deceased if CPR was initiated. Where was she going leaving Covelo after darkness alone on a Sunday night? Seems more information is yet to be disclosed or discovered to shed light on this terrible tradgedy. RIP Chief heartbreaking end. 💔
Not to be disrespectful, and there’s probably a lot of more salient issues with the accident, but the Chief himself might point out a First Responder factoid:
Unfortunately one would only perform CPR on a technically deceased person. No pulse, no breathing. Success is rare, only 4%, and pretty much only when accompanied with rapid transport to a nearby hospital, and with with young otherwise healthy individuals under specific circumstances.
Appreciate that. It is not disrespectful to have different thoughts, ideas or inputs. We need communication without having different inputs being dismissed, super important for truth and facts! As far as the CPR, to do so we need some hope of viability. When I have done CPR is a heartfelt attempt. Have had folks recover, they did need follow up in the ICU. The scenario is unusual, odd, has some missing facts that could establish more of what did happen. As the investigation unfolds may truths be found. Youth and the aged the dichotomy of it all.
She may not have been going out of town Yes, driving out alone on the Covelo Road on a dark Sunday night seems a bit dicey, but if she was, well that was surely her business. But then she may have been headed for Fairbanks, a residential road south of Poonkinney Road.
I am waiting to hear more details. We are all anxious to learn the whole truth.
I feel especially terrible for the Covelo crew who arrived on the scene and discovered it was their own dear Chief. Oh Lord have mercy. They have to be taking it very hard. Prayers up.
It’s so odd that, if he was being transported, he was on the road in the first place. It is so sad for the community to lose such a beloved man.
I have a problem understanding, if he was being delivered by a medical transport company, why was he a pedestrian on 162 after dark? RIP Chief.
As a former firefighter medical first responder, while on an emergency call on the highway, I often witnessed people that were disoriented walk out to the middle of the road. It seems like they believe that’s where belong.
You can never leave a disoriented person unattended. Is it possible that Chief Baker was disoriented?
However, a hit and run is never forgivable. No matter how young the kid that hit him was. Driver responsibility should be question #1 on the driver test.
Yes, it is confusing and contradictory. Condolences to the family and community of this respected public servant.
That little 💩better be in custody!!!
I’d like more info on the medical transport to his front door.
If it’s true he was dropped off on a dark stretch of highway with no shoulders miles from town or home then someone should be looking at charges for criminal negligence and/or manslaughter.
Reply
News trickle’s in slow from that 3rd world region. If he was released from medical care too early ( not stable), that could be a questionable medical error.
The issue seems to be getting dumped off in the middle of nowhere — it’s not that he was discharged too early from the hospital — the so-called medical transport arranged by the hospital failed to get him home.
Or across the street from his home, or outside his front door, we don’t know yet.
Grrrrr. This does not make sense.
My heart goes out to everyone involved, including the driver who will never forget.
Yes. It could be quite awhile before she sleeps without nightmares/sense memories.