Daniel Stepenosky, Ed.D.

It is my utmost pleasure to write a letter of recommendation in support of Doug Bridges, Bridges Construction Inc., and their [West Coast Fire & Water] franchise.

The Woolsey Fire of November 2018 burned approximately 100,000 acres. Our school district, the Las Virgenes Unified School District, encompasses 90 square miles with 11,300 students and fourteen schools, and was located directly in the middle of the Woolsey Fire zone. We were heavily impacted by the fire and had to close all our schools. Fortunately, we had very little structural damage, but extensive damage from smoke, ash, and soot. Our insurance company reached out to various companies to submit a bid for our cleanup project, and I couldn’t be more pleased that they selected Doug Bridges Construction!

We set a very aggressive timeline of two weeks to reopen all of our schools, and they were on site, sleeves rolled up, ready to make sure that happened. The cleanup effort could easily have taken eight weeks or more; however, Doug’s team knocked it out in less than twelve days! His family was personally invested as well with boots on the ground throughout the entire process and in constant communication with our insurance company and us. To make matters more challenging, the cleanup occurred during the Thanksgiving holiday. In spite of the timing, they had staff and family members working late the night before Thanksgiving, eight hours on Thanksgiving Day, and all through the holiday weekend to ensure that we were able to open on time.

They treated our schools as if they were their own property. They did a phenomenal job of vetting their staff and maintained high standards for them, diligently monitoring them and the quality of their work on a daily basis. During the cleanup process, we had two different companies testing for surface particles and air quality. Doug and his team worked very closely with both companies and were extremely responsive to any issues that may have arisen. Thanks to their diligence and efforts, we had a completely successful opening of our schools after the fire. Students and staff were thrilled to come back to their school sites, which were cleaner than when they left! I can’t thank Doug and his team enough for their hard work, dedication, and professionalism.

I would highly recommend Doug Bridges and Bridges Construction to any school district that finds itself in the unfortunate position of cleanup after a natural disaster, and I would not hesitate to call them myself if we found ourselves in similar circumstances.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or need any additional information. I can be reached at 818-878-5225, or dstepenosky@lvusd.org.