Following a devastating fire early on Christmas morning, Melissa Brown and her partner John Tackett, of Accord, are homeless living what Brown calls an “awful nightmare.”

“The house was very old,” Brown said. “Numerous fire companies came. They did what they could, but they couldn’t save it.”

The Brown home on Sundale Road in the woods of Rochester Township caught fire around 1:40 AM on Christmas morning. The house’s central components dated back to the 1800s. Tackett was asleep upstairs at the time, and woke up to the house in flames.

“I’m a heavy sleeper,” Tackett said. “I woke up and I was gasping for air. The room was full of smoke. I couldn’t see anything I couldn’t find myself in the bedroom. I got out of bed and I was [feeling around with my hands] to locate my position. And I made it to the window and got out onto the roof of the porch. I was trying to call 911, but couldn’t get phone service. I jumped off the roof and probably knocked myself out. When I woke up, the fire trucks were there.”

John, after regaining consciousness, was trying to break the windows to let the dogs escape, but he was unable to break the glass. Meanwhile, Melissa was coming back from celebrating Christmas Eve with friends.

No humans were killed – Brown’s children are already grown and were not around for this disaster, and Tackett made it out, but Brown and Tackett are grieving a small ark’s worth of animals.

“I came up on the firetrucks and they wouldn’t let me through. So, I was running up the road. It was terrible. And I kept asking the firemen about the animals.”

When Melissa got past the firemen, she found the house was burned to the ground. “I got home and I found there was nothing left.”

“Unfortunately, we lost all our pets,” Brown said. “Our four dogs: Tessa, Donkey, Lilly, and Osa. Our three cats: Harlee, Minka, and Jupiter, And our turtles: Marlee, Marvin, Mater, and McQueen. This has hit us the hardest. They were our family.”

“I am devastated by this,” Tackett said. “I couldn’t save anything and it kills me.”

“We eventually buried all the animals together,” Brown said.

The house was the center of the Brown Farm, which had been in business since the 1820s, Brown thinks. Her father, Gordon Brown was both a farmer and a corrections officer at Napanoch. He passed at age 89 in 2023.

“The farm has been in my family for 200 years,” she said. “Unfortunately, after my father passed in October 2023, I was unable to get home insurance due to the age of the house. So, we've lost everything. Escaped with just the clothes on our backs.”

Brown said that she believes the fire broke out in electrical wiring, possibly in the living room. She noted that, while they had a wood-burning stove in the kitchen, that room was the last to burn on the ground floor.

The Brown Farm was an important part of the old hamlet of Liebhardt, and there was once a post office, a general store, a blacksmith shop, and a sawmill clustered there.

“We still grow hay in the fields and harvest that,” Brown said. “And the rest is forest.”

It’s a bleak situation, and Brown says rebuilding is not an option.

“It’s been a nightmare I just can’t wake up from. Currently we are able to stay at my mother’s home, while we are just in shock.”

Melissa Brown is a lifelong resident of Rochester. “I grew up on my families’ farm here and always loved being there. I’m heartbroken and devastated. I’m in a situation that still seems unimaginable.”

Incredibly, it could have been worse. Melissa explained that they had just bought and installed a new refrigerator. “It was set against the wall, and outside that was the gas tank. But the fridge just melted right there and the fire didn’t go through. Otherwise, that gas tank would have exploded.”

For now, Melissa and John are just trying to sort out what to do. If anyone wants to help, please go to the GoFundMe page: https://gofund.me/348eac3d