S. Calif. blazes singe operators, suppliers: after aiding firefighters, evacuees, region's feeders tally costs of closures, burned crops

Nation's Restaurant News,  Nov 5, 2007  by Lisa Jennings

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SAN DIEGO -- Fires were raging across Southern California when Quiznos Sub franchisee Ken Shea was forced to pile his worldly goods into a car and evacuate his home in the San Diego County community of Rancho Bernardo.

Road closures left him unable to get to his restaurant in San Diego's Mission Valley district, and the sandwich shop was closed for a day. Though he still didn't know the fate of his home, Shea did what he felt was necessary as soon as he was able to reopen the business.

He made sandwiches.

As fierce winds fanned the flames of more than a dozen major hillside fires in seven Southern California counties from Santa Barbara to the Mexico border during the weeklong crisis, Shea organized his fellow Quiznos franchisees to prepare about 2,000 box lunches. They helped feed emergency personnel and the more than 500,000 evacuees who filled shelters in the San Diego area.

Shea was not alone. Rallying to feed those in need were scores of restaurants, from the high-end Nobu Malibu, which reportedly served thousands of dollars worth of sushi and seafood to firefighters battling blazes that scorched more than 100,000 acres of Los Angeles County, to McDonald's, which initially donated at least 10,000 Extra Value meals and 50,000 bottles of water while providing financial assistance and free Wi-Fi Internet access at restaurants across the region.

At press time, several of the fires were still burning and threatening homes. Seven fire-related deaths and 139 injuries had been reported, and property damage estimates topped $1 billion with some 2,813 homes and other structures destroyed and at least 518,489 acres burned--an area more than twice the size of New York City.

The most damage was seen in San Diego, Los Angeles and Orange counties, though steep losses also were tallied in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The fire also destroyed thousands of acres of farmland, including an estimated one-third of San Diego County's nearly $300 million avocado crop as more than 360,000 acres of the county were burned.

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There were no reports of restaurants being destroyed or damaged in the fires, though many operators were forced to close units for several days because of evacuations.

Over the smoke-filled week, operators struggled to get an accounting of employees, many of whom were displaced, and get supplies to restaurants cut off by closed roads and evacuation-related traffic jams.

Many said it would take time to get a full picture of the impact of the fires on their businesses. Meanwhile, most said they were grateful for an opportunity to help others.

Ron Putman, Southern California area developer for Greenwood Village, Colo.-based Maui Wowi Hawaiian Coffee and Smoothies, was evacuated from his home in San Diego County. His house wasn't damaged in the end, but Putman spent days serving free coffee and smoothies out of a tent to evacuees at a local high school. His 21 franchisees, along with the corporate office, donated smoothie mix, cups and other supplies.

Brian Horne, director of marketing for the San Diego-based Pat & Oscar's chain, also was among the evacuees, though he was eventually able to return home. The fast-casual chain's corporate office was closed for several days, as were three of its restaurants.

The San Diego-based Jack in the Box chain also closed its headquarters for at least two days, and about 10 of the chain's local restaurants closed temporarily for evacuations, but scores that remained open supplied food and financial support to area shelters. In addition, some 120 local Starbucks Coffee outlets reportedly were shuttered temporarily, as were at least 16 McDonald's restaurants in the affected areas of the county.

One challenge for Pat & Oscar's was posed by the location of a principal supplier in a fire zone, making it difficult to get food to restaurants and for charitable-feeding efforts, Horne said. Throughout the week, Pat & Oscar's restaurants shuttled food to Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, where thousands of evacuees took refuge.

The experience, said Horne, made him realize the crucial role a restaurant can play in such a crisis.

"When you get kicked out of your house and everything you own is in two cars, and you've got your kids and your dogs, the first thing you want to do is find food for your family," he said.

Near Lake Arrowhead, a hard-hit mountain resort town east of Los Angeles in San Bernardino County, firefighters working to contain an outbreak came across an abandoned Subway restaurant, according to an Associated Press report. Fortunately for the haggard and hungry fire crew, the sandwich shop's fleeing workers hadn't locked the doors, which allowed the famished firefighters to don plastic gloves and make their own sandwiches.

The firefighters reportedly cleaned up after themselves, left cash in an envelope and described the Subway meal as their best of the day.

At one point during the hellish week, employees at Del Taco's headquarters in the southern Orange County town of Lake Forest could see flames in the distance from their office windows. A shift in the wind took the blaze in the opposite direction, but the office closed for a day, as did one Del Taco branch nearby. Despite reports of evacuations by Del Taco employees, none was said to have lost a home to the so-called Santiago Canyon blaze, which torched several canyons and consumed nearly 28,000 acres of the county.