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Massive building fire in south Omaha

Crews work to stop fire at a south Omaha building
Posted at 4:39 AM, Jul 01, 2016
and last updated 2016-07-01 20:20:08-04
Fire crews continue to put out hot spots more than 16 hours after fire tore through this more than century old building.
 
Smoke and flames filled the sky as crews battled the fire. 
 
It all started around 1:30 on Friday morning.
 
Entrepreneur Tom Meyer says he's kicked out squatters here several times.
 

"You can only do so much because they can always get in if they want to, always,” he said.

Meyer bought the property near 26th and Q two years ago and is planning to building a large butcher shop here.

"it's an old building. It's a brick wall building with just a wood roof. It's pretty simple, you get all that heat in there and it just collapses," he added. 

Private contractors removed debris and tore through what's left of what meyer says was an old pelt shop. He said he knows the outcome could have been worse.

"Just glad no one got hurt. It's a shame people always want to break into buildings and do whatever they're going to do in them," he said.

"You can only do so much to stop them. You can't have the police there all the time to babysit everything.."

Meyer said fire investigators tell him that they don't know what caused it.

OFD has not released any details yet.