Omaha apartment explosion under investigation, Red Cross helping displaced tenants

By Alex McLoon

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    OMAHA, Nebraska (KETV) — Fire investigators are still trying to figure out what triggered an explosion at an apartment building southeast of 72nd and Blondo streets, which displaced 11 tenants and 3 children. Some returned Monday to retrieve belongings in the ash.

Omaha Fire Department public information office Coby Werner said investigators are also working to determine a cause for other fires at Crossroads, and the Onyx apartment building near Aksarben.

Omaha fire investigators are still working to determine what came first in Sunday’s fire: flames or an explosion that rocked the home-turned-apartment building.

Previous coverage: Omaha fire crews respond to apparent apartment explosion that displaced 14 people, including 3 children

“All the presents that I bought my kids are in there,” Arsenio Davis said.

Omaha fire investigators are still working to determine what came first: a fire or an explosion that rocked the home-turned-apartment building.

“My whole life was in there,” tenant Tyrece Jasper said. “I don’t have nothing, like—you see, I’m outside now with no coat.”

Jasper is getting help from the Red Cross. The humanitarian group gifted him hundreds of dollars to book a hotel room in what is the latest incident it has seen this year.

“We’re going to meet individually with residents or with families, talk about what their needs are,” Red Cross spokesperson Josh Murray said Monday.

Inside the local Red Cross, volunteers are training and stocking up whatever needs to be rushed to the next emergency, whether it is a fire, tornado, or a hurricane states away.

“In the last few years, we’ve seen an increase in severe weather, basically not only impacting our areas, but around the country,” Murray said.

Volunteers travel far and wide, sometimes symbolized by pins, which are on full display inside the local American Red Cross center.

Murray says the group has budgeted for more disasters that he has seen pick up in recent months and recent years.

“But that doesn’t mean we are ready in the secure space,” Murray said.

The local Red Cross recently replaced a twenty-year-old truck used to deliver essentials. Donations help pay for prescriptions and hotels. Some tenants here say they are receiving a new place to stay for the holidays.

“They gave us blankets, and they called the Red Cross,” Davis said “But I got to get up there and pull my life back together and see what I can find through these ashes and stuff.”

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