PHOENIX — The owner of a well-known family business in Phoenix is not giving up in his efforts to rebuild after losing nearly everything in a fire.
"This is called a milling machine. It's for doing, pretty much doing flat parts... something like this. We made these," said Jeff Whiteman, owner of Whiteman's Machine Shop.
Whiteman showed ABC15 on Tuesday what he was able to salvage from his beloved machine shop off Grand Avenue near Roosevelt Street.
"These items right here are some of the things we used to make," said Whiteman.
The cleanup process has come a long way since the business went up in flames a year ago. Whiteman tells ABC15 he thinks the fire may have been sparked by lightning. With no insurance, he had to do most of the work himself along with help from his sons.
"Boys were here Saturday and they helped me a lot, to like make a couple of areas to where we could pass through here because we're planning on getting some roof trusses," said Whiteman.
ABC15 is told starting over wasn't easy.
"They wanted to tear it down and put apartments here and build it into some other, you know, modern facility. But I wasn't ready for that," said Whiteman.
Whiteman's resilience is something to admire, he has been working with an architect and structural engineer to bring his family back to life.
His plans are to keep a workspace for himself in the back of the shop and potentially have a workspace for rent in the front.
Whiteman tells ABC15 he has been in talks with the historical society and would like to carry the idea of making the storefront similar to what it looked like in 1928.
His main mission is to keep the existing exterior walls and is hoping to get a building permit approved by the city. Once that happens, he says he will be in need of materials like wood, 3x6 and 3x8, if anyone is willing to donate. An online fundraiser was also created last year to help the family back on their feet.
Eleven10 Moto Garage was another business impacted by last year's fire.
"So, this bike is the one that was in front of the building before it collapsed," said Chris Elliott of Eleven10 Moto Garage.
The community motorcycle workshop space was in a portion of Whiteman's Machine Shop when it caught fire. A year later, they are in a new location and celebrating their four-year anniversary from when they first started.
"As you can tell, we have a lot of different types of motorcycles, a lot of different types of people that come in here and that's one of the things we pride ourselves on... is the diversity," said Elliott.
They thank the community for their continued support.
