Cutler was on the phone all morning with families, explaining what had happened and making arrangements.

He and partner Tom Heafey, 86, immediately said they planned to rebuild. (The Dworak family also is a part owner.)

But their more immediate concern was staying in touch with those who had entrusted them with the remains of close relatives.

“Bill and Tom are two of the most professional people I’ve ever been around or worked with,” said Kucera, who stood outside the burned structure Tuesday. “The building can be rebuilt, but these families have trusted us to care for their loved ones. I just hope everybody keeps these people in their prayers.”

Families with whom he had spoken Tuesday, he said, were “very understanding.”

Kucera said that since a 1979 merger, Bill Cutler and Tom Heafey had “built the business up from almost nothing.”

The company has other locations, but he said the West Center site, which started with about 80 funerals in a year, now handles more than 1,200 a year, by far the most in the Omaha area.

Although the funeral industry went through a spate of corporate purchases in the 1980s, a number of Omaha mortuaries remain family-owned.