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Extensive damage resulting from a fire that broke out at the pyramid home guarded by a pharaoh statue in suburban Chicago may force the owners to knock the tourist attraction down.

It's estimated the cost of the fire and water damage to The Gold Pyramid House from the incident on Tuesday in Wadsworth, Illinois will total $3 million.

If owners Jim and LInda Onan decide to demolish rather than repair, they will replace the structure in Lake County with a 'bigger and better' pyramid, spokesperson Yolanda Fierro said.

The Onans have determined the water damage from firefighting efforts on Tuesday to be extensive, while fire damage is limited to just a few of the rooms in the five-story structure, she said.

While an investigation into the cause of the fire remains underway, Gurnee Fire Department Battalion Chief James Pellitteri told DailyMail.com that work being done to repair the exterior of the structure may have been a contributing factor.

No people lost their lives in the blaze, but 15-year-old Lulu, one of two family dogs living in the pyramid, died as a result of the fire, according to the Daily Herald. 

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Damage totaling $3 million resulting from a fire on Tuesday at the Gold Pyramid Home, guarded by a pharaoh statue, in suburban Chicago may force the owners to knock the tourist attraction down 

Workers were on site when emergency responders arrived, and had been stripping gold paint from the outside of the house and museum, Battalion Chief Bob Heraver said.

The removal efforts were 80 percent complete, Fierro said, and the building was due to be repainted. 

It appeared the workers had made unsuccessful efforts to extinguish the blaze prior to fire personnel arriving to the scene, Pelliterri said.

With the help of a live-in caretaker, Linda was able to get her husband, Jim, out of the home and to safety. 

Five firefighters suffered minor injuries, with three suffering smoke inhalation, one injuring a shoulder and another injuring a knee, Haraver said. 

Jim Onan (left) and wife Linda Onan (right) lived in the the pyramid house in Wadsworth, Illinois

This aerial photo taken on Wednesday shows fire damage to the structure in Illinois

Aerial footage taken on Wednesday shows exterior damage to the the Gold Pyramid House

Jim Onan is shown here, walking near his Gold Pyramid House in an undated photo shared to social media on March 15, 2012

No people lost their lives in the blaze, but 15-year-old Lulu (pictured), one of two family dogs living in the pyramid, died as a result of the fire

'The consensus has been that we want to rebuild and reopen in the future,' Fierro said. 

'A company that specializes in storing artifacts has been hired to come in and take pictures, clean and store the artifacts that are salvageable.' 

Guided tours had been operating on Sundays but will be canceled 'for the rest of the year,' the museum announced in a Facebook post on Thursday.

'We are still having events on the property, just nothing near the house,' the post read.  

The Gold Pyramid House was built in 1977 as a private residence and later opened its lower floor for public tours. 

A 55-foot-tall (17-meter-tall) statue of Ramses II stands guard at the edge of the property. The statue of the pharaoh weighs 200 tons according to an interview the Onan's son, Thomas ('Rocco') Onan, gave to Chuck Nice when the family home appeared on Home Strange Home.

The statue was unharmed in the fire.

Gurnee Illinois firefighters work to save the unique home in suburban Chicago on Tuesday

Public tours have been canceled for the rest of the year, but events will still be held on property

Rocco told Nice that his father became intrigued by pyramids after the University of Wisconsin claimed the structures could produce their own power in the 1970s, which ultimately prompted his parents to build their own.

The Gold Pyramid Home, itself, spans 17,000 square feet and stands five stories tall.

Originally, its top four floors were devoted to living space, with the bottom floor reserved for lectures to tourists.

On the first floor, next to the lecture hall is the museum, which contained replicas and artifacts, some of which are on loan from Egyptologists across the globe.

Most recently, the bottom two floors had been opened to tourists, with public tours resuming at the property in 2009. 

'This was the best house to play hide and go seek in,' Rocco told Nice in the interview. 

The Gold Pyramid House is shown here in a photo taken before the fire erupted on Tuesday

Its top floors were devoted to living space, with the bottom floor reserved for tourist lectures

The Egyptian theme continued throughout the home, as shown on Home Strange Home

Owner Jim Onan is shown here, in a photo taken at the pyramid home long before the fire

Elsewhere on the property, there's also an above ground replica of Tutankhamun's tomb

Elsewhere on the property, there's also an above ground replica of Tutankhamun's tomb.

Its an exact replica of King Tut's final resting place, with the hieroglyphics in the burial chamber reproduced precisely, Rocco said.

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'It's the same exact size and measurement of the actual one, found in the Valley of the Kings [in] Thebes, Egypt,' he said.

There's also a moat surrounding the property, which was once rumored to have been claimed to be a sort of 'fountain of youth,' prompting the Onans to start bottling and selling their own beer made with water from the moat to tourists. 

The Lake County Sheriff's Office says the fire wasn't suspicious. 

There's also a moat surrounding the property, which was once rumored to have been claimed to be a sort of 'fountain of youth,' prompting the Onans to start bottling and selling their own beer made with water from the moat to tourists

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