One person dead after apartment fire in Paris

PARIS, Ky. (WTVQ) – The Bourbon County Coroner confirms one person is dead after an overnight structure fire.

The fire department says it happened around 2 a.m. at a duplex on High Street in Paris.

The coroner says 47-year-old Troy Michael Clifton was taken to Bourbon Community Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

According to the Paris Fire Department, there was someone living in the back half of the duplex, but they made it out safely.

According to the fire chief, they did not find a working smoke detector in Clifton’s apartment. He says there was a working detector in the other apartment.

Clifton’s family says he was a father to six and a grandfather to 13.

ABC 36 talked to Clifton’s mother and two of his daughters. They tell us he was well-known, explaining their Facebook feeds are full of people posting in his memory.

“Everybody knew him,” said his daughter, Ashley Clifton. “Everybody’s on there that says how much they loved him, how much they hate that he’s gone. It’s too soon.”

Now the family says it’s hard to imagine life without him. They say the rest of their family, and even people from the community, are extremely supportive. That’s something they’re thankful for in a time when it’s hard to find the right words to say.

“They can’t put it into words about how they feel about this,” said Clifton’s mother, Claudia Mitchell. “We can’t really, because the hurt of losing him, but we know he’s in a good place, but would have like to have him here a lot longer.”

State Police are investigating the cause of fire.

An autopsy is underway.