KINSMAN — Stories filled the house at 7968 Orangeville-Kinsman Road, both in the bound volumes that packed the shelves upstairs, and the screenplays, novels, short stories, comic books and newspaper stories written there.

The work remains, but fire destroyed the historic home Monday evening.

Emily Webster Love, 87, who has lived there since 1995, escaped unharmed with her dog, but Kinsman Fire Chief Tyler Elser said the structure was a total loss.

“I feel like I’ve let it down,” Love said Tuesday afternoon. “I feel like I was in charge of taking care of it, and I let it down. It’s an awful feeling … I know I’m supposed to be grateful to be alive I guess, but I’m just angry.”

The house was little more than a cabin with no electricity for most of its existence, which dates back to the 1800s. It was bought in 1950 by Edmond Hamilton and his wife, Leigh Brackett, as their summer home.

Brackett (1915-1978) is one of the two credited screenwriters on “Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back,” the most revered installment of one of the most popular cinematic franchises of all time. She also was a screenwriter on such films as “The Big Sleep,” starring Humphrey Bogart,” and “Rio Bravo,” starring John Wayne, who was a visitor to the Kinsman house on at least one occasion. She also wrote several novels, including “The Long Tomorrow,” a post-apocalyptic tale that was set in Kinsman and the surrounding area.

Hamilton (1904-1977) wrote for science-fiction pulp magazines and comic books (primarily Superman and Batman) and published several novels.

Love, who was a reporter and editor with both The Youngstown Vindicator and Tribune Chronicle and also is an author, was reading a book and watching television — and not paying much attention to either — when the fire started around 8:30 p.m. Monday.

“Usually at that time of night, I’d be fast asleep on the sofa,” she said. “I don’t know why I wasn’t, but I heard a crinkling noise, and I turned my head and there was fire coming up the wall. I ran for my fire extinguisher, but by the time I got it, I turned around and looked back in the living room, and the fire was on the ceiling.”

Hamilton and Brackett added electricity, expanded the kitchen and made other improvements during the nearly 30 years they had the house. Later owners added a front porch, and Love and her now late husband, Kenny Love, also made several changes after acquiring the property. It made for a house filled with quirks and eccentricities.

“We used to say laughingly, that if this place ever caught fire, it would go up like a matchbox,” Love said. “It was just old lumber, just 200-year-old lumber. And there was no plaster in this house. It was all wood, and it just went.”

The fire still is under investigation, and an investigator from the state fire marshal’s office has been on site, according to Elser. Love was asked if there had been a power outage, and she said she had to flip the circuit breaker earlier in the day when simultaneously using two kitchen appliances tripped the switch.

Elser said 11 fire departments assisted Kinsman in extinguishing the blaze. Firefighters were on the scene for about five hours Monday night / Tuesday morning and used between 60,000 and 80,000 gallons of water.

Crews were called back to the scene about 7 a.m. Tuesday when the fire reignited.

“Due to how we had to get the fire extinguished, we kind of figured last night that there would be a hot ember somewhere underneath everything,” Elser said Tuesday. “We did get called back this morning and we threw probably a couple thousand gallons on it, nothing major.”

The other structures on the land, including a cottage that Love’s son was rehabbing and the barn for her horses, weren’t damaged, and Love’s horses also were unscathed. Her two cats did not make it out of the house.

Luckily, a propane tank near the house for the furnace did not explode in the fire or the damage might have been greater, she said.

Love, who interviewed Brackett at the house in the mid ’70s as a reporter for The Vindicator, gave a tour of the property in May for a story on the 45th anniversary of the release of “The Empire Strikes Back.,” and her love for her home and its history was undeniable.

She didn’t always feel that way. When her husband first suggested buying it because it would be a good place for their horses, she wanted to tear it down and build new. He profanely objected.

“I didn’t realize then how important the house itself is to the (township). Right now, it’s probably the oldest house still standing,” she said in May.

Love still was weighing her options on Tuesday, and she may stay in the cottage while she decides what to do next. She will need to run a temporary electrical line to do so, because the cottage depended upon the main house for power.

“I’ll have a chance to do it (rebuild) if I choose to do it. I’m sure I’m going to choose to do it, and when I do, it’s going to be very close to what I’ve lost,” Love said. “It’s not going to be a new, modern ranch. I’m going to have something that fits the history of the place.”

Love had nothing but praise for the support she’s already received.

“The fire crews were marvelous. They did what they could,” she said. “And this community has been fantastic. I have insurance. I have a bank account. I’m OK. It could be a lot worse, except that I’m going to miss the house and my cats.”