‘The (gas) service line was not marked!’: Fire marshal draft on M's Pub fire points finger at MUD
By Russell Hubbard / World-Herald staff writer
Updated Aug 27, 2016
Firefighters recall battle to save M's Pub building
Omaha World-Herald
Metropolitan Utilities District workers did not mark the natural gas line that was breached and sparked the massive fire that destroyed the M’s Pub building, according to an investigative report from the State Fire Marshal’s Office.
The underground excavators drilling in the area who hit the pipe couldn’t have known of its existence without the markings of nearby gas lines, the report said.
The report is the basis of a June 23 letter to MUD notifying it that the Marshal’s Office is preparing to conclude that the utility violated state pipeline-safety regulations.
“Metropolitan Utilities District personnel failed to sufficiently mark gas pipeline for 422 South 11th Street,” reads a letter of the fire marshal’s investigation.
The “notice of probable violation” letter is marked “draft,” and both the Marshal’s Office and MUD say the investigation is continuing.
MUD has previously said that it marked the lines properly.
Ratepayer-owned Metropolitan Utilities District “has consistently maintained, and will continue to maintain, (that) the district ... properly marked all utilities in front of 422 South 11th Street, and the fire’s cause is a direct result of the horizontal drilling company’s failure to follow routine and standard procedures for identifying the position of underground utility lines prior to commencing operations,” spokeswoman Tracey Christensen said in a statement to The World-Herald.
The conclusion of a state investigator’s report dated Jan. 20 said the opposite: “The service line was not marked!”
The June letter is the first government-sponsored analysis to publicly suggest fault for the conflagration that caused no deaths or serious injuries, but which burned out several business and displaced condo owners in Omaha’s historic Old Market.
The letter from the Fire Marshal’s Office was sent by Certified Mail to MUD President Scott Keep.
The World-Herald multiple times since January has requested the fire marshal’s report on the M’s fire, but the state office has denied the newspaper’s request.
A spokesman for the Fire Marshal’s Office emphasized Wednesday that the report is only a draft.
“The incident involving M’s Pub is STILL UNDER INVESTIGATION,” spokesman Raymond Nance wrote in an email to The World-Herald. “No final determinations have been made.”
But the letter, signed by two fire marshal officials, and accompanying investigative reports, are already being used in a lawsuit related to the fire.
The letter and reports were included in a filing Wednesday in Douglas County District Court by Unite Private Networks, one of the contractors that was part of the fiber-optic installation that led to the fire. Unite Private and two other companies were sued this year by Old Market property owners who said the companies were at fault for the Jan. 9 blaze.
Unite Private’s filing says the fire marshal’s findings bear heavily upon making a final determination of who was at fault.
“MUD’s failure to accurately locate and mark existing gas lines is also mentioned in at least four investigation reports obtained from the State Fire Marshal,” reads a document filed by Unite Private on Wednesday. “These documents show that MUD’s actions caused or contributed to the explosion.”
Until now, the only official word on the fire has been from the Omaha Fire Department, which needed 60 firefighters and nine hours to put it out. In January, the department said a ruptured natural gas line was the cause of the blast and fire.
The Fire Marshal’s Office, however, was much more specific in its letter dated June 23 and signed by two officials of the office’s fuels division and pipeline section.
Attorneys for Unite Private obtained documents as part of the discovery process related to a civil lawsuit filed by owners of the M’s Pub building, Mark and Vera Mercer and their Mercer Management Co., which developed much of the Old Market and still owns many of its buildings.
The fire marshal draft findings detail multiple alleged lapses by MUD, which supplies natural gas to about 225,000 people in the metro area and had 2015 revenue of about $300 million:
» MUD didn’t “respond in an appropriate manner” to a request in late December to pinpoint natural gas lines related to the fiber-optic drilling project that led to the January fire.
» No MUD workers traveled to the site in late December “for identifying, locating and marking of gas pipeline ... as per Metropolitan Utilities District Operation and Maintenance procedures.”
» Markings for the natural gas lines “were non-existent.” The two opaque dots on the sidewalk “were not consistent with markings of other gas service lines in the immediate area ... the markings for the gas service were not recent and were not sufficient to give excavator indication for the presence of a gas line.” Even after two weeks of being exposed to Nebraska weather, markings for other utilities in the vicinity were visible; there were no markings for the gas line that was breached.
At about 2:50 p.m. on Jan. 9, a drilling crew from Minnesota-based North Central Service breached the natural gas line, which led to the fire and explosion that destroyed the M’s Pub building and damaged nearby buildings.
According to the civil lawsuit filed this year in Douglas County District Court by Mercer Management, North Central was the company that did the digging related to the Old Market fiber-optic installation. Kansas City-based Unite Private was the company that hired North Central for the work. Unite Private, in turn, according to the lawsuit, was hired by New York-based telecom giant Verizon Wireless to expand the Old Market’s fiber-optic network.
All three private companies have been sued by Mercer Management, Old Market clothing boutique Nouvelle Eve and about a dozen burned-out condo owners, saying the companies’ negligence led to the fire. All have answered the Mercer Management lawsuit, saying they were not at fault. North Central said in its response that MUD “caused and contributed” the damage that came from the explosion.
Only the Nouvelle Eve lawsuit so far has enumerated property damages from the fire — at least $1 million, plus lost business profits.
So far, MUD has not been named as a defendant in the Old Market property owner lawsuits. Mercer Management said at the time that it filed its lawsuit that it would do so after a statutory waiting period ends this month, a grace period allocated to political subdivisions, which MUD is as a ratepayer-owned utility. The condo owners also said they plan to later include MUD as a defendant.
MUD’s status as a political subdivision under state law has other ramifications for property owners attempting to collect compensation for their damages.
Nebraska law limits payment of money damages in such cases to $5 million for “all claims arising out of a single occurrence.”
Attorneys involved in the lawsuits say the definition of “single occurrence” can vary — there can be more than one in such an event, with a sequence of actions taking place, any number of which might be deemed by a judge to be a single occurrence.
So far, the civil lawsuits by property owners have targeted the private businesses involved in the drilling. The largest of them is Verizon, the largest mobile-phone company in the United States, with $132 billion in sales last year.
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Omaha Fire Department rules Old Market blaze 'accidental fire.'
Still no word on who is at fault
UPDATED 5:20 PM CST Jan 22, 2016
OMAHA, Neb. —The blaze that ignited under an iconic Omaha restaurant and raged in the middle of the Old Market for hours was accidental, the Omaha Fire Department said Thursday.
The investigation confirmed that crews struck a gas line.
Here is what the department said in a media release:
"This was verified and documented by removing the sidewalk area above the gas line and then excavating the dirt to expose the gas line. This revealed obvious damage to the gas line. This damaged section of gas line allowed the gas to leach into the basement of the building. Once in the basement of the building a credible ignition source ignited the gas, causing the ensuing explosion and fire.
After these findings, this fire has been determined to be an accidental fire."
The finding comes after crews spent the day getting access to and working underground, hoping to learn more about the fire that destroyed many Old Market staples.
Fire investigators and insurance companies worked to document and identify the cause and origin of the fire.
City permit and inspections Superintendent Jay Davis says that, still, no one is allowed in the building, and all activity will remain outside until engineers come over the weekend.
"We are thinking about safety," said Davis. "They (forensic engineers) evaluate things differently than a normal engineer does. They make determinations based on experience and science."
Concerns over the snow-laden canopy had kept crews from the sidewalk in front of M's Pub where the fire erupted.
Thursday, the area was finally safe enough for them to dig.
A major part of the investigation includes confirming whether crews located any kind of utility lines before the fire erupted.
Jason Adkins is the president of Unite Private Networks, a fiber optic company. His business hired the contractors from North Central Services, crews who were working in the area of the fire.
“This happened somewhere under the sidewalk, about three feet,” he explained. “I will say the contractors indicated that they didn't feel like there was indications that a gas line was there.”
Thick yellow lines mean gas or oil...
and orange markings would indicate fiber, telephone lines or cable lines:
“We didn't see any long yellow lines like we typically see…that's what the investigators will work to see: Should the contractors have known there was a gas line there, was it marked properly?” Adkins said.
The Metropolitan Utilities District says evidence shows proper markings of utility lines near M’S Pub, according to their investigators.
In a wide-ranging media release, the utility addresses a list of questions, including whether the utility lines were properly marked, the process of locating them, and the age of the pipes.
After the investigation concludes, the city will concentrate on what needs to be done to make the area safe.
The owners of the building -- the Mercer family -- have hired their own forensic engineer to come this weekend.
Once that engineer submits his report, he'll work with city engineers to determine what's next for the building.
Officials say they hope to know more next week in regards to what has to stay for fencing and what doesn't, and if access to the Old Market will change.
However, Davis says he doesn't want the community to get the impression that the Old Market is closed.
"I don't know if people are sure if the Old Market is open, but the businesses that can open, are," said Davis. "We want people to come down."
Forensic engineers who are expected Saturday will look closely at the finer details of the building, including bricks, joints, etc. They hope to see if any crystallizing took place.
They will look to see what parts of the building must come down, and what portions are able to be stabilized.
The city has recommended removal of the north wall; the Mercers disagree and are bringing in their own engineer to assess it.
"The engineer that's coming in is an excellent engineer," said Davis. "He has a very good resume, and he's done this a long time."
Davis adds the engineer is a good resource.
"We use every resource we can, and sometimes, specialists are required," said Davis.
In the meantime, Davis says they still have to keep a very close eye on the structure.
“I am concerned about our thaw this weekend. As we've said before, if that water expands and contracts again quickly, who knows what the bricks are going to do,” Davis said.
In the meantime, everyone is eager to find out more answers, and how to prevent a similar catastrophe from ever erupting again.
“Ultimately, the truth will come out. We'll figure out what happened,” Adkins said.
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Nouvelle Eve adds to legal drama from M's Pub fire, suing 3 companies involved in drilling project
By Russell Hubbard / World-Herald staff writer
Updated Aug 27, 2016
Another Old Market property owner has sued over the January M’s Pub fire, adding to the legal drama that now also ensnares the Metropolitan Utilities District.
Old Market clothing boutique Nouvelle Eve this week filed a lawsuit in Douglas County District Court against the companies involved in an underground drilling project, saying they were at fault for the disastrous natural gas explosion and fire.
Sued were Minnesota-based North Central Service, which did the digging to expand the Old Market’s fiber-optic network and ruptured a natural-gas line; Kansas City-based Unite Private Networks, which hired North Central to do the work; and New York’s Verizon Wireless, which retained Unite Private to oversee the expansion.
On Jan. 9, a drilling crew for North Central ruptured a gas line while working on the fiber-optic expansion project, which led to an explosion and fire that took 60 firefighters nine hours to extinguish. There were no deaths or serious injuries.
But the lawsuit is the third one by an Old Market property owner over the fire, which consumed the historic M’s Pub building and damaged adjacent structures. M’s Pub building owner Mercer Management was first to sue, followed by about a dozen condo owners who were displaced.
All three companies — North Central, United Private and Verizon — were named in those lawsuits as defendants, and all three have responded with court documents saying they were not at fault. Verizon declined to comment on the latest lawsuit, as did Unite Private. Attempts to reach the attorney for North Central were unsuccessful.
The Nouvelle Eve lawsuit says property damage for the business owned by Susie Keuck comes to at least $1 million, along with $42,000 in lost monthly profits each month since January. The earlier lawsuits have not yet enumerated precise damage claims.
“As a direct and proximate result of the fire ... Nouvelle Eve’s interior improvements, fixtures, store merchandise, inventory, and personal property ... were damaged irreparably,” the lawsuit says.
While the Nouvelle Eve lawsuit is the latest, it is not the only recent development.
On Wednesday, Unite Private Networks filed papers with the court in relation to the Mercer Management lawsuit against it that included a draft report of the Nebraska Fire Marshal’s investigation into the blaze.
The Fire Marshal report said natural gas line operator MUD failed to properly mark the underground lines prior to digging and is probably in violation of laws governing pipeline safety. MUD says no conclusions should be drawn from what is only a draft.
In May, about a dozen condo owners from the 420 S. 11th St. building just west of the M’s Pub structure filed their negligence lawsuit in Douglas County District Court, also naming the three companies.
The lawsuit says the companies were responsible for the M’s Pub fire and should pay for the damage suffered by 13 people in all — the condo owners, an M’s Pub employee who was in the eatery when the fire broke out and an attorney whose law office was destroyed in the adjacent 1102 Howard building.
“As a result of the fire, the homes and many of the possessions” of the condo owners were destroyed, the lawsuit says.