A year ago Thursday, a well known funeral home burned down, injuring one of the owners and three firefighters.
Construction workers are building a new chapel where the funeral home was consumed by flames at 78th and West Center.
About 50 workers are busy every day getting the new funeral chapel ready.
Once built, it will be 26,000 square feet which is six thousand more than the original building.
"It's nice to see that it's not the end of a fixture in the Omaha community, that they're able to get into a temporary facility and continue operating,” said Battalion Chief Steve Thornburg. “They've been a significant part of a lot of people's lives in Omaha."
Thornburg says it's nice to see the new Heafey Hoffmann Dworak Cutler funeral chapel under construction.
"The building rebuilt in the same location, some upgrades, and have a nice new building, still keeping some of the historical aspects of the old funeral home that was on the site before,” Thornburg said.
After injuring his head and watching his funeral chapel burn down, January 26, 2015, Owner Bill Cutler says there has been an outpouring of kindness from the community.
“A thousand fold, we've had so much encouragement from the community, it's just been... I can't put it in words how grateful we've been and how nice everyone has been to us,” Cutler said.
Despite the fire consuming the funeral chapel, none of the nine deceased bodies inside were affected,” Cutler said.
He says that’s miraculous.
"I can't explain it, but it was unbelievable that none of them were burned,” Cutler said.
The Omaha Fire Department can't release the cause of the chapel fire beyond saying it was "accidental."
The new chapel is expected to open in September.
