Armorer for US fencing team loses home to Lake County’s Clayton fire

A week after embracing U.S. Olympic fencing medalists in Rio de Janeiro, Matthew Porter held his wife’s hand and surveyed the scorched remains of their former home in Lower Lake.

Porter, the armorer for the U.S. fencing team, and his wife, Karen, on Friday evening were able to see firsthand how the Clayton fire had reduced to ashes their personal possessions and the inventory of their fencing and armory business.

Dozens of blackened blades lay twisted in a heap on the site of a former workshop. Nearby a huge two-handed sword could have been mistaken for the curved metal hoop of a wine barrel. Little from the home remained recognizable except a cast iron teapot and a small fencer figurine that once had stood on Porter’s desk.

“We’re hanging in there,” Porter said Friday before going back for the first time to a home the couple had purchased and lived in for only two months. “We’re not really able to process right now. That’ll come in time.”

Longtime friends and members of the fencing community are rallying around the Porters, who said they hadn’t yet obtained home insurance because of preparations for the Olympics. Supporters have set up a crowd funding campaign that by Saturday night had received more than $45,000, with a goal of $100,000.

“Matthew has been such a crucial part of Team USA and helping our athletes fence at their best around the world and has spent so many years dedicating his time to working with our junior and senior national teams,” Kate Reisinger, the U.S. fencing team leader in Rio, said in a statement. “To go through such a loss at a time in which he should be able to enjoy celebrating our team’s success is unimaginable.”

Porter, 59, this month served in his third Olympic Games as the fencing team armorer in Rio. His role was to care for the team’s fencing weaponry and other equipment.

Last Friday he had an arm-in-arm photo taken with the four-member men’s foil team, whose bronze medal was the first the U.S. has won in that competition since 1932. Last Saturday he had a similar picture taken with the four-member women’s saber team, also bronze medal winners. Two team members also won silver medals in individual competition.

While in Rio, Porter received an email last Saturday from his real estate agent about the Clayton fire. His wife contacted him by email from Lower Lake around noon last Sunday, saying it looked like their home would remain safe. Then everything changed.

Karen Porter, 70, slept that Sunday afternoon and awoke to find the wind blowing the fire her way.

“It was pretty scary,” she recalled. “I woke up from a nap and I was trying to figure out why the power was out. I realized the backyard was full of smoke and it was bright orange.”

She put two dogs and a cat in the car and drove away, apparently the last person from their cul-de-sac to escape the flames. She left so fast she didn’t lock the door or retrieve her purse.

The Porters’ residence was a manufactured home. After moving from Pacifica to Lower Lake in June, the couple contacted some insurance companies but learned those businesses didn’t insure such structures, Porter said.

Soon, he said, he was busy getting ready for Rio and thinking that home insurance was “one of those things we had to do when I got back.”

Porter’s home-based business, American Fencing Supply, offers a range of fencing equipment and bills itself as “the continent’s largest supplier of theatrical and period weapons.” Porter, who took up fencing as a student at UC Santa Cruz, went to work for the company in 1980 in San Francisco. He bought the business in 1995.

In addition to the world of competitive fencing, the Porters are known for their longtime involvement with the former Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Marin County and the ongoing Great Dickens Christmas Fair in San Francisco. Friend Rob Bradshaw said thousands of visitors to both fairs have taken fencing lessons using Porter’s weapons.

Bradford, who set up the crowdfunding campaign on Go Fund Me, said the response so far has been staggering.

“We’re quite thrilled and surprised at how much people have been able to give,” he said. Those contributing include “a lot of fencers and coaches.”

The Porters’ campaign page can be found at: gofundme.com/2kg64t5p.

Porter said the couple wish to rebuild in Lower Lake.

He acknowledged his wife and he have received considerable attention due to his Olympic ties, but added that nearly 200 other families also lost homes in the fire.

“We need help,” he said, “but there’s a lot of other people who do, too.”