CHICAGO — A fire that started in a surf and turf restaurant in Washington Heights early Sunday morning has business owners in the same plaza scrambling to get back on their feet.

According to the Chicago Police Department, the fire started around 12:19 a.m. and was later extinguished by the Chicago Fire Department.

“There’s a lot of smoke damage, water, the firefighters cut through the roof, ceiling tiles are all damaged,” said Waseem Doleh. “I don’t even know the extent. All of my electrical work is gone.”

Doleh, who owns ABC Choice — a cell phone and clothing store — said the fire caught him by complete surprise.

“All of my alarms went off at around 12:30 [a.m.], I’m like what the heck happened? My cameras were out, I couldn’t see anything,” Doleh said. “I figured it was a robbery. I don’t know what happened. I get back and all I see are ten fire trucks, ambulances, cop cars all over the scene.”

Police said businesses were closed at the time and no injuries were reported.

Besides the fire, Doleh said the plaza was under construction and being remodeled up until about a month ago. But as construction was completed, other issues began to happen.

“We actually had an incident last week with a U-Haul truck trying to drive through our store,” Doleh said.

The U-Haul was unsuccessful at breaking into Doleh’s business, but it did cause structural damage to the property, which is compounded by the fire damage experienced by his and other businesses Sunday.

“We just want to get back our feet,” Doleh said. “Business has been slow also, so hopefully this gets fixed up and we get rocking.”

CFD is continuing to investigate the fire and there is no other information available at this time.