redwoodjennings

I have a 95 cherokee w/ a 4.0. automatic 4x4. I went to start it the other day, it turned over once and all of the sudden I lost all power to everything. You turn the key on and no instruments, no lights no nothing. Hazards dont come on, absolutely nothing. I checked battery power and it was fine. (Also a new battery) I started looking at the fuses and found some blown under the dash, I also checked the ones under the hood and they were fine but I do not have the fuse diagram for it and the chilton manual does not show it either. I went even farther and took the steering columb covers off and found that the wires on the ignition plug on the bottom were corroded and the insulation was melted at the ends exposing bare wire. There were no signs of shorts but I had now power on any of those wires. My questions are is that normal in the cherokees for that plug to get so corroded, is there another fuse or component that the power goes through before it goes to the ignition? What else should I look at This might be a dumb set of questions but I have no schemadics that are worth a darn. Any help would be very appreciated.
Thanks.

freegdr

first thing id do is buy a fire exstingusher ,then repar all wires