Owner says gutted Antioch-area bar will rise from ashes

Despite the heavy damage left by a fire in her Antioch-area bar last week, the owner of Whiskey Jane's said Sunday it is far from last call for the business.

Fire swept through the bar at 25210 W. Route 173 about 1:08 a.m. Friday, according to Antioch Fire Department officials, gutting much of the business' interior and damaging adjoining apartments. No injuries were reported, though one person was evaluated at the scene.

Bar owner Amelia de Loach said she was in Charleston, South Carolina with her dad when the fire occurred. Her mother, Mary Taylor, and bartender Elena Brust closed the bar shortly before the fire was reported.

Brust said she returned to the bar after receiving a call from one of the apartment's residents.

"I saw five or six different fire trucks, ambulances, police officers. The bar was covered in smoke. You couldn't really see anything," she said Sunday. "The whole road was filled with smoke, and there were people everywhere."

Although she noticed nothing unusual when she closed the bar, Brust said a firefighters told her the fire could have started before she left.

"It's scary to think about that," she said.

Antioch Fire Department Battalion Chief Tim Taylor said firefighters were on the scene at 1:11 a.m. and had the fire out by 2:45 a.m. The last unit was on the scene at 4:10 a.m.

It was a relief to see the bar was closed when fire broke out, he said.

"When I saw no cars in the parking lot, it made me feel a little bit better," Taylor said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the state fire marshal.

The rest of the of building where the tenants were living is largely unaffected, de Loach added.