HOT MEALS AND HANDSHAKES
Don Pedersen felt helpless.
The fires stopped two blocks away from his home near the corner of Badger and Calistoga roads in Santa Rosa.
“Rather than sit here and feel sorry for ourselves, there was more we could do,” he said.
Many firefighters from as close as Santa Rosa and as far as South Carolina were pouring in to fight the flames. His nephew — a local firefighter — said they needed hot meals and extra drinks.
And that’s what Pedersen decided he could provide.
His family and friends set a 40-foot camper outside fitted with generators to cook meals and started taking donations. He has received everything from cases of energy drinks and water to delivery pizzas and steaks.
After long days, firetrucks lined the normally quiet road, and Pedersen and his friends handed out meals, drinks, handshakes and many thank-yous.