PHOENIX — Jeff Whiteman said it was 1928 when the building was built – it was a Safeway store then.
Now, he now owns the building. But Whiteman's Machine Shop was destroyed in a fire last week.
“I got a call from my son that the shop is on fire. So, I hopped in the car, zoomed over here,” said Whiteman.
Thursday night, Whiteman's shop near Roosevelt Street and Grand Avenue in downtown Phoenix was engulfed in flames while firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze. It’s unclear what exactly started the fire.
“There were a lot of lightning strikes that night. We thought it had to do with lightning," Whiteman said. "The neighbor across the way heard a big boom.".
The fire collapsed the whole roof down on top of everything inside. The back part of the building was Whiteman’s shop, and the front was home to the Eleven10 Garage, a community space for motorcycle enthusiasts to work on their bikes.
“We all just banded together and rented this space. So, we’ll have a space to hang out and work on stuff,” said Chris Elliott with Eleven10 Garage.
Most of the bikes were works in progress.
“Lot of the bikes we had in there were projects. We had big dreams for what they were going to look like, said Elliott.
“This is a Yamaha XS 1980 or 81,” said Sebastian Spall. His bike was the last to be pulled from the rubble.
“That whole beam was lying on it, and the tank, is maybe, got a flat spot on it. It’s not even like a big fat dent, nothing’s burned on it. So, I’m like, ‘wow.'’”
Whiteman said the building is not insured and is looking to see if the old building can be saved. There is a GoFundMe account set up to help with costs
Chris Elliott said they’ll find a new space and have a GoFundMe account to help with expenses.
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