Andrea L. Brown, Special to the Tribune

An Irish pub and restaurant outside Antioch has been declared a total loss in a blaze that the local fire chief called “very stubborn.”

Officials are still investigating the cause of the fire that broke out this morning at Dublin O’Shea’s near Channel Lake on Illinois Highway 173, though Antioch Fire Chief John Nixon said there’s no indication at this point it was suspicious.

Crews arrived on the scene at about 9 a.m. this morning to find smoke pouring from the building and the basement on fire. Large flames could still be seen later shooting from the roof, though the blaze was largely contained by 10:30 a.m. and extinguished altogether by about 3 p.m.

“It was a very stubborn fire. We had to chase fire in concealed spaces throughout the day,” Nixon said.

No one was in the restaurant or in the apartment above it when the fire broke out, though a firefighter from Richmond — one of several departments on both sides of the Illinois-Wisconsin border to assist — fell and broke his arm, Nixon said.

The brick building with wood and plaster interior was built in the 1940s, Nixon said.