Valley fire: 'Lake County is looking like a ghost community'

A letter from Kent Porter to his colleagues at the Press Democrat on the collaborative efforts of covering the worst fire he's ever reported on, the Valley fire in Lake County.

Thanks to all those that did an amazing job the last two days with the coverage of the Valley fire, right down to the people in the press room. The copy desk patiently waited for my photos on Saturday night, including Patty Hayes, who suffered through my harried captions and made it all work, making it shine the next day. Brett Wilkison calmly guided me through the coverage, and Guy Kovner took my frenetic reports and made it all work in a cohesive story telling way. Mary Callahan shot me texts whenever she could, even though the cell service was all goofed up and I couldn't text back. She continuously checked up on me, as well as on Paul Payne (who did an amazing job) in the very wee hours of the morning. I even texted Mary I had made it back to Middletown at some ridiculous hour, and she wrote back, encouraging me to get sleep. If I've forgotten someone, I apologize. I had a tough time even writing captions and remembering what pictures I sent yesterday.

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