Trying to coordinate help from food trucks

Smoke billowing from Wine Country wildfires is serving as a call to action for many West Coast food-truck vendors, some of whom are plotting forays into decimated portions of Santa Rosa where the depth of the historic fire damage is still being assessed.

City officials coordinating recovery efforts in Santa Rosa said they appreciate the outpouring of support from food trucks across the state, but timing and coordination are key in recovery efforts.

“We’re requesting they not mobilize for now. We have no idea of logistics,” said Brandalyn Tramel with the city of Santa Rosa. “It’s nice, but right now, we’re focusing more on the basics: trying to get people water, fuel, generators.”

The food-truck flurry can be traced to an early-Tuesday-morning tweet posted on the city of Santa Rosa’s official Twitter account calling for “licensed and available food truck vendors.” Within 24 hours, Tramel said there were more than 100 inquiries from vendors as far away as Oregon, most of whom were ready to come to Santa Rosa and surrounding areas immediately.

“We’re excited about the outreach, but right now, we just want to tell people to stand by,” she said.

Among the San Francisco trucks ready to hit the road is Curry Up Now, which according to the chain’s foodtruck manager, Josh Yazzie, had a Santa Rosa caravan in the works even before the city’s public request for assistance.

Yazzie grew up in Sonoma County and, over the past few days, has had loved ones in the area lose and leave their homes.

“It’s a small gesture, what we’re doing,” he said. “The challenge at the moment is coordinating when and where people can go.”

The Curry Up Now team wanted to expand the base of potential volunteers in San Francisco so it contacted roughly 80 of its food-truck cohorts. Among them was San Francisco’s Taiwanesestyle bao specialists, Chairman Bao, which started a GoFundMe page to address the costs associated with its plan to provide free meals to 500 people.

Owner Curtis Lam says the restaurant has the capacity to serve multiple locations and it’s “willing to send our fleet if we can staff them.”

Curry Up Now was told Wednesday afternoon that its truck could serve food at the Petaluma Police Department from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Yazzie said he’s giving the emergency responders a list of trucks interested in coming to the area.

“We have a grip of food trucks that want to go up and feed the people that are struggling. We don’t want to get in the way,” he said. “We just want to help. We want to help soon.”

Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JustMrPhillips