TOWN OF FAYETTE — A fund has been set up to help the rural Argyle family that lost 89-year-old Melvin LeRoy Narveson in a house fire last week.

The fatal fire also displaced Narveson’s wife of 40 years, Sandra, as well as his step-granddaughter and her 3-year-old son.

A family friend set up a GoFundMe campaign to help them. It can be found on the fundraising website by searching for the title, “Loss Of Home And All Belongings From Fire” or by typing the direct link gofundme.com/loss-of-home-and-all-belongings-from-fire.

The fire ravaged the South Lake Road house while Narveson was home alone mid-day Wednesday, Jan. 23. The house was engulfed in flames before firefighters arrived and were able to extinguish the fire and pull his body from ashes.

Narveson died of smoke inhalation, according to Lafayette County Sheriff Reg Gill. The cause of the fire is classified as undetermined, due to extensive damage to the home that complicates finding an exact cause.

Stacie Butson, Narveson’s step-granddaughter, said her Grandpa LeRoy, as he’s known to family, valued his independence and helping others. His daily routine included sitting in the kitchen and reading his mail.

“He loved going through his mail and giving to every charity there is,” she said. He often opened the oven for added warmth in the kitchen, and now the family wonders if this was a factor in how the fire started, she noted.

Butson had recently moved into the house with her 3-year-old son, Ezra, and dog, Zeus.

She said little could be salvaged from the wreckage of the fire. Her uncle saw “something sparkle in the ash” and picked up a diamond ring that’s been in the family for generations.

But virtually everything else was destroyed, including photo albums she had hoped to one day show her son. They’ve had to find housing elsewhere.

Narveson’s wife, Sandra, was admitted to Memorial Hospital of Lafayette County for congestive heart failure two days before the fire. She had looked forward to returning home and living out the rest of her life with her husband in the house, Butson said.

Now, on top of losing her husband, “she’s coping with the fact that she’s going into a nursing home.”

The house had been in the family for generations, Butson said. Her own parents live down the road. When Butson and her son moved in with her step-grandparents, four generations lived on South Lake Road. 

Even before the fire, she and her boyfriend had a plan of building a home next door. They envisioned it as a one-level structure where the grandparents could easily live, too.

The fire hasn’t changed their plans to build on the road and stay close to family.

“My son loves his grandparents and it means a lot to him being out there,” she said.