Smith: PD photographer Kent Porter is back in the flames, and dreading the fall

Our fearless fire photographer, Kent Porter, got to sleep in his own bed last night after living the nightmare of another catastrophic blaze in southern Lake County.

“This fire is totally different” than last September’s devilish Valley fire, Kent said. The topography is flatter than that of the firestorm that blew down Cobb Mountain, and there aren’t as many trees in and around Lower Lake.

But Kent said the terror dealt by the Clayton fire, though not on the scale of last year’s mass tragedy, is plenty bad enough.

He’s pained to see the animals that were killed and the houses that have burned. He tells of recognizing fatigue in the faces of firefighters who rushed to Lake County with little or no rest after battling the fire near Big Sur.

Kent has noticed that the people of Lake County have become very good at the art of the rapid retreat from the jaws of a wildfire.

In the wake of the Valley fire, “These people live on the edge all the time,” he said. “I imagine their (evacuation) plans are a little more refined than the average person’s.”

He imagines, too, that “the entire county has PTSD.”

Though Kent hopes for the best, he admitted that his gut knots to realize as he photographs the déjà vu fire that we’re still a month-plus from the heart of fire season.

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FANS OF ‘SERIAL’ packed a large room at the Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma on Sunday to hear Rabia Chaudry, who has millions around the world eager to see what will become of a young Baltimore man imprisoned for the murder of his former high-school girlfriend.

Chaudry was in Sonoma County to speak about her new book, “Adnan’s Story: The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial.” If you’ve followed the hugely popular “Serial” and “Undisclosed” podcasts, you know Chaudry is convinced that it was a travesty of justice for family friend Adnan Syed to be convicted of the strangulation and hasty burial of Hae Min Lee in 1999.

Chaudry captivated and delighted the Petaluma audience, which cheered her heroic efforts to expose what she believes is the truth about Syed and to get him freed. Seventeen at the time of his ex-sweetheart’s killing, he is now 34 and serving a life prison sentence.

A judge in Maryland has ordered that his conviction be vacated and that he be given a new trial. One of the many questions Chaudry took at Copperfield’s was that if the judge’s order prevails, does she think Syed should engage in a plea bargain or insist on a new trial?

Chaudry’s reply suggested that of a boxer who feels cheated out of a decision and who aches for a rematch. She said she’d like nothing better than to help a new defense team obliterate the prosecution’s case against Adnan Syed.

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IT WAS PARTY TIME at The Living Room, the dignified and welcoming new day center for homeless women and mothers that caring has created on Santa Rosa’s Cleveland Avenue, a bit north of College Avenue.

The grand opening celebration for clients featured a dance DJ, barbecue lunch, school backpacks, face-painting and tours of the showers, laundry and program spaces.

Karen Eck, who’s 65 and lives at present in a motel, praised The Living Room as “a place where women can come to feel safe, feel protected, feel cared for and feel supported.”

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.