Rick Neale

FLORIDA TODAY

MELBOURNE – Raging orange flames ravaged one of Melbourne's oldest surviving homes Thursday afternoon, destroying an irreplaceable riverfront house that predated the city’s electrical, railroad and telephone services.

The historic house was the Elizabeth Eaton home, which was built in 1893 on the Indian River bluff in Melbourne's Riverview Drive neighborhood.

Built of heart pine, cedar and cypress, the blue-and-white Victorian Vernacular home at 1809 Riverview Drive was the first place added to the newly created Melbourne Register of Historic Places on Dec. 11, 2007, said Kelly Hyvonen, city planner.

Firefighters from Melbourne, Brevard County Fire Rescue, Palm Bay, Satellite Beach and Indialantic responded to the blaze, which created a column of black billowing smoke visible from Eau Gallie to the barrier island south of Melbourne Beach.

No injuries were reported. A Melbourne police officer who was patrolling the area spotted smoke and reported the fire at 12:15 p.m., Police Cmdr. Dan Lynch said. Two more officers arrived to check the house for occupants – and they noticed an older woman inside, Lynch said. The officers escorted her to safety while the home filled with smoke.

The house is a total loss, Fire Chief Chuck Bogle said, and the cause has not been determined. The State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating.

A couple of firefighters suffered scrapes and cuts, and a couple more required intravenous fluids for dehydration, Bogle said. Dozens of tired firefighters took turns resting in shade beneath a large oak tree throughout the afternoon, sitting amid scattered oxygen tanks, heavy coats and black helmets.

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Six tenants were left homeless, said Cheryl Mall, city spokeswoman. American Red Cross personnel reported to the scene to help arrange temporary living arrangements. The whereabouts of two cats remained unknown Thursday afternoon, Bogle said

The homeowner, Diane Barile, was in Jacksonville with her grandchildren when the fire broke out, said her son, Dan. The longtime history buff is one of the founding members of the Melbourne Historic Preservation Board, and she bought the house in 2000.

“I immediately called my mom. All of her things were in there,” Dan Barile said, standing across the street from the burning home.

“Everything of her heritage and family is burned to the ground,” he said.

The Elizabeth Eaton home stood a couple of blocks south of Green Gables, which was added in May to the National Register of Historic Places.

Eaton (1846-1928) moved from Pennsylvania to Melbourne about 1892. Five years later, she bought the house for $100 following the death of her aunt.

Diane Barile gave FLORIDA TODAY a tour of the house in January 2008, birdwatching from the wooden riverfront porch with Josie, her black cocker spaniel, and Hurley, her Havana brown cat. She dressed as Elizabeth Eaton, wearing a black wool gabardine dress and white linen blouse trimmed with crocheted lace.

Barile has impersonated Eaton in historic costume for years at City Hall meetings and various events, including a Green Gables open house last October.

The Elizabeth Eaton home’s garage was added sometime after 1920, after automobiles came into vogue, city records show.

"It's really sad. It's a historic structure, and it's a part of Melbourne," City Manager Mike McNees said, watching firefighters battle the blaze.

"On the other side of the coin, the Melbourne Fire Department kept the fire from spreading to other properties on a really, really hot day," McNees said.

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Rolf Schroeder has rented an apartment inside the house the past four years. He works as a baker at The Mansion, and he was at the nearby restaurant when the fire broke out.



"One of the managers said, 'I see smoke by your house.' I went to check it out -- and it was my house," Schroeder said, watching the fire as ash fell around him at a garage across Riverview Drive.



"Shocking. A little numbing. I lost everything," he said.

Marty Stoll is a managing partner at Windward Building Co., right across the street. He said he called 911 after he spotted flames shooting up in the back of the garage.

“Devastating. It was a beautiful historic old house,” Stoll said. “You’ve lost this beautiful house – and now these people have nowhere to live.

“It was fully involved in five minutes. It was done,” he said.

Bogle said Riverview Drive only has a 6-inch waterline, so firefighters “hand-jacked” another line from nearby U.S. 1. Florida Power & Light crews shut off electricity in the surrounding neighborhood, and smoke continued drifting across downtown past 3 p.m.

“Here at City Hall, we were shocked and saddened to watch it. A group of people stopped and watched the smoke billowing from the fifth floor. We found out it was Diane’s house, and we couldn’t take our eyes off it,” Hyvonen said.

“I asked her once why she did the historic designation. She told me, ‘If I designate it and it passes on to my children, I’ll know that it will be preserved.’”

Contact Neale at 321-242-3638, rneale@floridatoday.com or follow @RickNeale1 on Twitter