Lunch served on campus to thank local firefighters

Local firefighters, including those from Orange County Fire Authority Station 4 which protects the UC Irvine campus, were treated to lunch Wednesday, Dec. 5, as a thank-you for battling the wildfire in nearby Santiago Canyon. “These guys protect our campus, and during the Santiago fire, they saved our homes, too,” said Marc Gomez, director of Environmental Health & Safety, which hosted the barbecue. Campus community members showed up to personally thank the firefighters. They included Wendell Brase, vice chancellor of administrative & business services; Richard Demerjian, campus & environmental planning director, and James Hay, assistant vice chancellor of facilities management. The homes of Demerjian and Hay narrowly survived the fire.