Fire investigators hope to get in to the basement of an Old Market building to determine the ignition source of an explosion and fire on January 9th.
The explosion and fire gutted the building that housed M’s Pub and apartments. On Thursday, the Omaha Fire Department determined the blaze was accidental.
Workers installing fiber optic cable struck a gas line outside of M’s Pub, and the natural gas was ignited by a heat source in the basement. Investigators found the ruptured gas line under the sidewalk outside of the building.
Assistant Fire Chief Dan Olsen says investigators still aren’t sure when—or if—they’ll be able to get in to what’s left of the building.
"It’s our sincere hope that we can get in there and get in to that basement eventually. But if you reference the Butternut fire, we were never able to get in, it was just determined to be too unsafe, and unfortunately they had to raze the building and we were never able to get in and do a hands-on dig."
Olsen says the fire was very difficult because of the weather and the risk of collapse. Much of the building remains encased in ice, and a collapse zone remains in place. Ice also damaged fire department equipment.
Crews began removing an awning Thursday.