State-Journal.com - Woman loses belongings, family research in house fire

Photo By Kelly Mackey

Furniture sits on the lawn after a home on Airdrie Drive caught on fire Friday morning.

Photo By Kelly Mackey

A damaged antique clock sits among other recovered items on the lawn.

Fifty-foot high flames engulfed Eldred Melton’s home, antique furniture and family tree.

Homeowner Eldred, 80, said the fire has likely destroyed decades of her research and the collection of cherry wood furniture built by her late husband, Jim Melton, a prominent figure in state public school circles.

“I haven’t been up there,” she said. “I’m not sure I want to go. I’ve been trying to get my nerves up.”

A fire of undetermined cause at her home at 1758 Airdrie Lane was reported at about 2:30 a.m. Friday, according to Frankfort Fire Department spokesman Dan Shouse.

Eldred said she doesn’t know if she will rebuild yet - the home will likely need to be demolished first.
“Eighty is a good year to start over,” she said.

Flames and smoke were visible from Versailles Road - about 20 firefighters responded to the call, he said.

“It had been burning for sometime,” Dan said.

Eldred was not home at the time - she was staying with her daughter who lives nearby.

Jim Melton III, Eldred’s son, also lives nearby and said flames were shooting 50 feet above the roof when he arrived.

The fire apparently started in the garage but a cause had not yet been determined, Dan said.

However, some of Eldred’s antique furniture was rescued including nine lamps, two coffee tables, a couch, four easy chairs, a desk, mirror and four chests of drawers. The items were placed on a large blanket in the front yard.

Dan said he was glad they could salvage some of the possessions, although the house is likely a total loss.

Eldred said she bought the replica period house two years ago for $215,000. It had four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a foyer, living room and dining room. The house was located on about one acre of land and had a small pond with fish and lilies.
Her late husband, Jim Melton Jr., was a former executive director of the Kentucky School Board Association.
“He could find a penny for the school systems just about anywhere,” Eldred said.

He retired in the 1990s. Eldred said he loved to work with cherry wood, and some of his furniture was also lost in the fire.
Eldred was a teacher for 16 years and former executive director of the heritage commission. She retired in 1983 and continued to research the history of her and her husband’s families.

The Melton family came from Harlan, Letcher and Leslie counties. Eledred’s ancestors came from Virginia and New Jersey, and she said she traced her lineage back to the 1600s.

She traveled to other states to find the information she needed and began storing it on one of the computers that was also destroyed in the fire.

Jim, her son, said they are both in shock about the loss.

“In a situation like that, you don’t have time to think about it,” he said. “It’s just something you absorb and watch, because there’s nothing you can do about it.”

The extent of the loss probably won’t set in right away, he said.

“Those feelings happen a couple days after you sit in and think about what you have you lost,” Jim said. “All the memories that have been consumed in the fire.”