When junior Olivia Robino first heard there was an explosion at M’s Pub, she didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t until her mom and dad came home from checking out the damage that she knew her mom’s store was destroyed. The store that her mom worked in for over a decade, the store that Robino grew up in, the store that she helped her mom make bouquets in, that was the same store that was iced over and only a moment away from entirely collapsing.

Following the underground explosion in front of M’s Pub on Saturday, Jan. 10, Robino’s mom’s store, Old Market Habitat/Niche, became one large icicle. The store, which sold furniture and house décor, also served as a workspace for her mom’s floral and wedding planning business. After the explosion and fire, her mom’s store and every other store around it was demolished.

“By the time it was done, the whole M’s pub building was destroyed,” Robino said. “There’s no roof and all the stores [surrounding it] are gone. It’s like an empty skeleton.”

Not only was the Habitat and Niche destroyed, but Nouvelle Eve and the Market House have also felt the repercussions of the incident. While investigators are still trying to put all the pieces together, one thing we know for sure is that the entire community has been at loss knowing that the Old Market lost a monumental piece of its history.

“It’s hard because if we talk about it, she gets upset,” Robino said. “She knows that there isn’t much she can do about it now, but she’ll get through it. I just know.”