Chicago firefighters respond to an extra-alarm fire at Roy’s Furniture at 2455 N. Sheffield Av. on May 29, 2012. (Photo courtesy: Tebitha Kulikowska)
CHICAGO (CBS) — Fire reduced Roy’s Furniture Company in Lincoln Park to rubble, but the venerable neighborhood institution is already planning a comeback.
Store owners and staff are planning to hold a news conference Monday to discuss the future of the store. They have yet to release further details.
Careless smoking is suspected as the cause of the extra-alarm blaze that destroyed Roy’s Furniture, at 2455 N. Sheffield Ave., on Tuesday of last week.
The fire broke out in the early afternoon this past Tuesday. A couple of students said a car parked in a loading bay exploded after the fire began roaring.
One student said she got hit with flying debris by the blaze.
Meanwhile, the Chicago Transit Authority Brown, Red and Purple Line Express trains were halted altogether for nearly three hours, right as the morning rush began.
Roy’s advertises itself as “one of the oldest established furniture companies in Chicago.” The store was founded by the late Roy Warner in 1984.
“Finding a new, reasonably priced sofa that’s either (a) not from IKEA or, (b) scored off Craigslist is a near-impossible task. Which is why folks who shop at this Lincoln Park locale tend to become Roy’s evangelists,” Time Out Chicago’s Jessica Herman wrote in 2010.
The remains of the building were cleared away the day after the fire.
