FREE PIZZA FOR FIREFIGHTERS
Boston native now in Calif. gives back
A Boston-born restaurateur who started a successful chain of pizzerias in Southern California has been making pies for firefighters and first responders as deadly wildfires rage near his businesses. Joe D’Amore, a North End native, moved to the West Coast in 1977 and founded D’Amore’s Famous Pizza, a pizza chain with eight locations in California. D’Amore’s restaurants have won national accolades and attracted Hollywood A-listers. The out-of-control wildfire has affected three of his pizzerias that are under mandatory evacuation, in Malibu and Thousand Oaks. D’Amore opted to stay put at one of his Malibu locations and feed firefighters and law enforcement officers containing the fire, for free. “A couple of officers came in today and said they’ve been on duty since 6 a.m. (Friday) and they haven’t eaten in over a day and a half,” D’Amore said, adding that his staff has been working around the clock to feed law enforcement officers, firefighters, utility crews and residents that stayed home. “As long as I can help people, I will stay here and feed them,” he said. D’Amore’s son-in-law Bobby Alt, who owns and manages the West Hollywood location, said much of the affected areas are obscured by smoke. It “has been apocalyptic since the fire started. Everything happened so fast,” Alt said. In some parts of Malibu, power and water have been cut off, leaving many without access to cook, access to the internet, or power to charge their phones. Cell services in the area have been overtaxed as well, so many can’t contact their love ones. “We brought out our food trucks with generators outside to feed people,” D’Amore said. “We’re the only place open … once you leave Malibu, you can’t get back in.” “They shut all the water off,” D’Amore said. “But since we import our water and flour from Italy, we can cook.” As of yesterday afternoon, D’Amore said he has handed out more than 100 whole pizzas, at no cost, to officers and firefighters at the front lines of the fast-moving fires. Firefighters in California are battling three major wildfires, including the Woolsey Fire, which has since expanded to more than 14,000 acres after starting Thursday in Southern California’s Ventura County. The fire has already claimed 11 lives, and displaced hundreds of thousands of residents as they flee the path of fire. Authorities have also converted all four lanes of the northbound Pacific Coast Highway to southbound traffic as the fire moved in. The fires descended on the region mere hours after the Thousand Oaks, Calif., community was staggered by the news of a mass shooting that left 12 people dead.