It\u2019s been two years since an explosion ripped through the Sandman Signature Fort Worth Hotel, injuring 21 people and disrupting life and business in the heart of downtown.<\/p>\n
Since the January 8, 2024, blast, lawsuits have been filed, and rebuilding continues. But for nearby business owners, recovery hasn\u2019t been as simple.<\/p>\n
La\u2019Creamian, an ice cream and coffee shop located just around the corner, had only been open for six months at the time of the explosion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were open for six glorious months,\u201d said owner Lisa Jackson. \u201cIt took us a while, those first six months, to break through. They didn\u2019t know who we were.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson said she was feeling optimistic heading into the new year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so, we were gearing up for 2024, and we were going to hire. And then on January 8th, 2024, after three in the afternoon, the explosion occurred,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The suspected gas leak destroyed part of the hotel on Houston Street, blowing out glass and walls from at least two floors. Debris covered the street. Nearby sidewalks were blocked off, cutting off customer access to small businesses like Jackson\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a while, the entire street was closed, including the sidewalks,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cAnd when that happened, the customers could not reach us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vertiasha Tickles, a former employee at a nearby business, remembers the moment she heard about the explosion.<\/p>\n
\u201cA friend had texted me and was like, \u2018Hey, your old job exploded.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018It did what?\u2019 And I was dumbfounded about what had happened,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Months later, the city provided relief through grants and support, including tens of thousands of dollars in funding and a block party to help bring customers back.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were uncertain, and it allowed us to get over the hard, hard part and still be here for the community,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n
Now in 2026, the view from Jackson\u2019s storefront on West 8th Street still includes construction equipment and barricades, reminders of the explosion and what\u2019s still left to repair.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cried a lot. And we huddled a lot,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was an uncertain time. It was definitely an uncertain time. But God was good to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
NBC 5 reached out to representatives for the Sandman Hotel. A spokesperson said the hotel had initially hoped to reopen by the end of 2025, but unforeseen delays have now pushed that target to summer 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been two years since an explosion ripped through the Sandman Signature Fort Worth Hotel, injuring 21 people…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":505455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,7371,226412,7372,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-505454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fort-worth-hotel-explosion","11":"tag-fortworth","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-tx","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115869218428814985","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}