M's Pub Fire: 2 years later

It’s been two years since an explosion and fire gutted a section of the Old Market. One restaurant has since re-opened. It's back on track and doing well.

They weren't the only business impacted; The Market House, for example is still boarded up two years later. Nick Bartholomew used to own The Market House off 11th and Howard.

"You know, as happy as we are for M's Pub to be reopened and to getting back into their groove, there's three businesses on this street, alone, that are still dark and so, that matters,” said Bartholomew.

But the restaurant, open only a few months, sustained significant water damage after that January 2016 fire. A fire that started from an explosion that ignited from a leaking gas line that fed in to M's Pub.

There's a lot of "what-if's" on the mind of M's Pub owner Ann Mellen.

"What if they found the gas shut-off valve? The fire never would have gotten so out of control as it did. What if it weren't so cold. It was freezing cold, that day, it was way below zero - it was a huge fight for the firemen,” said Mellen. "What if something would have happened to one of my employees, one of our guests that was here?"

Mellen is grateful no one was hurt. She's grateful to back up and running. The restaurant re-opened, this past November. It's something she wishes for her neighboring business owners. It's something Bartholomew wishes he could get some help with.

"We just need Omaha's help or whoever likes this neighborhood to put their time and their effort into what we're trying to do for them, and get this neighborhood back to what it was. Our favorite,” said Bartholomew.

There are still a lot of legal disputes still going on regarding that fire, documents list a host of names listed as plaintiffs and defendants.