Tenants of the John Street apartment building, that was destroyed by a fire on Monday, are looking at the University for some support. Barr Real Estate, Inc., the owner of the property at 51-53 E. John St., had provided the residents of the building with rooms at the Holiday Inn until tomorrow.

Lamark Ferguson, one of the residents of the building, estimated that about 12 to 13 people were now staying in the Holiday Inn. Ferguson said that he will be going back to Chicago this week, but many others will have no place to live after tomorrow.

Sang Xu, a doctorate student at the University, is staying in one of the rooms with his wife, and is unsure what he is supposed to do after he is told to leave the hotel tomorrow.

“I’m very concerned about receiving support from the University,” Xu said. “I know there are several international students like me who had borrowed many books from the University, and they were all destroyed. Some of my books were $125 per copy.”

Xu and Ferguson both said that Barr Real Estate should be responsible for the fire.

“The fire was caused by a Barr maintenance man,” Ferguson said. “He was fixing a drainpipe with a cutting torch, and had set the insulation to the building on fire.”

Barr Real Estate was unavailable for comment.

Xu said that he didn’t think that the fire report that was released by the Champaign Fire Department gave enough of an explanation as to an investigation of Barr.

“Several of the residents and I want there to be an investigation of Barr Real Estate, instead of just their insurance company,” Xu said. “We’re also working as a group to talk to the Chancellor about the loss of the books and the estimation of how much they were worth.”

As a doctorate student in the School of Architecture, Xu had much data on his computer that he had not been able to salvage from the building.

“We still haven’t gotten a lot of support,” Xu said. “They have provided us with food and supplies, but have not helped with finding legal assistance and guidance. We’re all very concerned.”