Well over 100 firefighters and 32 pieces of equipment were on the scene at the time. No one was in the building when the fire started in the 500-block of West Armitage just before 1 p.m. Friday afternoon.
The raging fire tore through the Lincoln Park home built in 1888.
Next year, Dr. Assad Jandali hoped to move in with his wife and three children.
The doctor told ABC7 he purchased the home last year for $1.3 million and workers have been busy transforming it from four units to the family's future home.
"I've seen a lot of people working on that apartment over the last couple months, but I haven't seen people really looking at it to live in, so it's been vacant for a while," said neighbor Lori Pelletier.
"It's really sad for him, I'm sure," said neighbor Meaghan Cleary.
The fire is still under investigation.
"It was totally out of control immediately. It had to be very fast burning," said witness Jody Knapp.
The fire escalated quickly and additional firefighters were called out before it jumped to adjacent buildings.
And then, after burning awhile, the home partially collapsed.
No one was injured.
"All people, including the workers, are accounted for We had a 2-11 alarm in the neighborhood of 150 firefighters on the scene...the guys did a good job keeping out of the exposure building," said Chicago Fire Department's Steve Chikerotis.
Neighbors and witnesses applauded the firefighting effort.
"They pretty quickly knew they just had the building and the building next to it , because there was a concern about it spreading the other direction. They did a great job of containing it," Knapp said.
Armitage was closed for a few hours Monday afternoon but was back open by about 4:30 p.m.
