Battlements afire

John, you know how you said you couldn't go 5 miles without bumping into a castle? We may have just lost the only one we had. WKYT 27 NEWSFIRST & WYMT Mountain News - Famous "Castle" On Versailles Road On Fire

I will confess that I was one of those people parked along the road watching it burn. Dwana and Eric knew the Martin family (between the two of them, they may know everyone in Lexington). Dwana called me and told me about the fire, and that they were going over to check it out. I called it ghoulish, but then, I did go. But they were going out of respect for Rex Martin's memory; there were a lot of people lined up, out of their cars, some with videos. We stayed in the car with the windows rolled down. One of the turrets was completely engulfed. We stayed a few minutes and then headed down Versailles road to turn around and come back. That was when we finally saw the fire trucks.

For those who don't know, the Castle is a landmark in the area. It isn't a real castle, but it has crenelated walls and turrets. Think of it as a fairy tale castle inspired by the real things. Inside was a house, mainly underground, and a pool.

In the dark, it was hard to tell how much was involved, but it seemed to be limited to the interior rather than the outer wall. Still, hopefully no one has been hurt and it can be contained. It had recently been bought and was being renovated; perhaps some of the construction touched off the fire, much like the gutting of the upper floors of the UK administration building awhile back.