On New Year’s day a powerful explosion and fire occurred at 514 Cedar Avenue South in Minneapolis, in a predominantly Somali neighborhood of the city. The building was gutted by the fire (photo below). Two bodies were found in the rubble, and fourteen people were hospitalized, one of whom died later. Within 72 hours, the building had been pulled down into a heap of rubble.
The FBI has declared that there was no evidence of terrorist activity in connection with the explosion that ignited the fire. Looking around online for reports of any investigative activity, I find that the media appear to have given up the ghost. My Google search does not turn up anything more recent than this January 4 local news story. The story reported: “Investigators still haven’t found a cause of the explosion that rocked Cedar Avenue South in Minneapolis on New Year’s morning.”
What happened? The Gates of Vienna Web site has been following the story. It has collected its posts here. Local correspondent Henrietta asks, in one of the site’s most recent posts, “The EC knows. Why not the FBI?” (I adapted the first paragraph above from Henrietta’s post.)
Two months after the explosion, we still don’t know what happened, but I doubt the story ought to be left a silent mystery.
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