By Kara Spak
The Chicago Sun-Times

CHICAGO — A freak fire Tuesday morning inside a South Side funeral home's "prep room" charred at least seven bodies, leaving families with little choice but to say goodbye to their loved ones at closed casket funerals.

The body of Antwoin Gates, who was fatally shot Sunday morning, was one of the corpses burned in the fire at Leak and Sons Funeral Home.

Tuesday afternoon, his grieving wife, daughter, brother-in-law and other family members returned to the funeral parlor, their second trip there in as many days.

"It's painful, painful to come here twice to set arrangements," said John Jackson, Gates' brother-in-law.

Jackson said his family decided to go ahead with funeral arrangements as planned, with one exception.

"Now, it's not an open casket," he said.

Investigators are still trying to determine what sparked the fire in the rear room of the nearly blocklong funeral home at 7838 S. Cottage Grove. Firefighters arrived on the scene at 7 a.m. and extinguished the flames 15 minutes later, said Larry Langford, Chicago Fire Department spokesman.

He said firefighters were unaware they were in an embalming room with more than 45 bodies until the smoke cleared.

"They really couldn't tell what the room was used for," said Langford, who added that the room was filled with smoke.

He said firefighters are waiting on an analysis of the building's electrical wires to determine the fire's cause, though it did not appear suspicious.

Spencer Leak Jr. said funerals scheduled for Tuesday were moved to nearby churches. The funeral home's public space was unaffected except for a smoke smell. He said he was "devastated" that any bodies were burned.

"We are in the business of serving families and we want everything to go right," he said. "They [deceased persons] are a gift from God and we need to treat a gift from God with 110 percent respect."

Gates' funeral is scheduled for Monday between 10 a.m. and noon. The funeral home is picking up the costs.