Celebrity chef Guy Fieri pitched in to make sure displaced Santa Rosa residents and emergency workers had enough to eat Thursday.
Fieri, a Santa Rosa resident himself, teamed up with the Salvation Army and created a temporary kitchen in the parking lot of the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building. Fieri and others served up thousands of meals, according to KTVU, dishing out barbecue favorites like pulled pork, roasted chicken and mac and cheese.
“This is the least we can do,” Fieri told the station. “We’re so sorry for friends who have lost homes. There’s a lot of really good people coming together.”
Fieri also praised Operation BBQ Relief, a nonprofit that brings stick-to-your-ribs comfort food to displaced people. According to the group’s website, they’ve served nearly 1.7 million meals to those affected by tornadoes, fires, floods and other disasters since they started in 2011.
More than 2,800 residences in Santa Rosa have been destroyed by wildfires, Mayor Chris Coursey told reporters Thursday. The number of destroyed structures in the state went up Friday by 2,200 to 5,700, Cal Fire said.
“It’s terrible in so many ways, but it’s wonderful to see great people coming together,” Fieri told KRON.
CNN contributed to this report.