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West Town Fire Destroys Home, Repair Shop: 'The Garage Door Blew Off'

By Alisa Hauser | March 26, 2015 9:57am

WEST TOWN — Dreams of building a repair shop for small engines and having his girlfriend move in with him — inside a converted live/work space along Grand Avenue — have been destroyed for a West Town machinist who lost his home in a fire early Monday.

"Belongings, furniture, clothes, pictures, everything gone," said Bob Barker, 55, on Tuesday.

Barker moved into the 1,500-square-foot apartment at 2218 W. Grand Ave. about five months ago. He was preparing to live with his girlfriend in the home and to build a machine repair shop in the front half of the one-story brick building.

Around 2:40 a.m. Monday, a fire erupted inside the building that caused non-life threatening injuries to two firefighters, the Sun-Times reported.

Bill Barker, Bob Barker's father who lives a few doors west and also owns the building, told DNAinfo Chicago that he had just invested $30,000 into remodeling the building.

Jeff Lyle, a Chicago Fire Department spokesman, said Thursday that the blaze was "still under investigation."

"No cause has been determined. We are working with the Chicago Police Department arson unit and hoping for an answer by the end of the day," Lyle said.

Bill Barker said that he and his son were in Downstate Champaign tending to horses on their family's farm when the fire erupted.

"My daughter called and told us; we drove up right away," Bill Barker said.

He added, "The only [thing] left is the brick walls and concrete. The garage door blew off. It was explained to me as an explosion. I'm not sure if it was a gas tank in a new car that exploded."

In addition to his son's belongings, a 2012 Honda Pilot with 7,000 miles was destroyed, too, Bill Barker said.

The one-story live/work space, in a LoopNet.com real estate listing:

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