Local restaurants help serve Cal Fire fire crews

Cal Fire crews along with other fire team face a hard road against them with the Lost, Lone Pine and Pearch fires.

Local restaurants in Eureka, Arcata and Fortuna help fulfill these large orders, having done so since the mid-aughts.

“It started with me I believe in 2006 when the fire started going on and they needed a place to feed them,” restaurant owner Joe Haddadin said.

“And not every place could take 40, 50 at a time and my places could. It started in Fortuna’s Pepper’s and we started to open the door for them.”

Other restaurants include both Pepper’ location in Fortuna and Arcata, Kristina’s Restaurant and Adel’s Restaurants, both in Eureka.

Starting with humble beginnings of fulfilling sandwich order, it has expanded to beyond that.

“that’s the good thing with us. We offer them the whole menu. They can order anything they want away form alcohol of course, they don’t. So they can come order whatever is need and we can make the arrangement of when they are going to be here”

And it’s something Haddadin feels great about giving back.

“They work all day long and they are just so tired and they just want a a warm meal,” Haddadin said. “It makes their day worth [it]. This is nothing compared to what they do but it actually feels good to help them keep full time work with energy.”