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Bremik Construction has named the subcontractor responsible for causing the gas leak that apparently led to explosions that leveled a 110-year-old building in Northwest Portland and injured eight people, including rescue firefighters and police.

Tualatin-based Loy Clark Pipeline Inc. was performing excavation work Wednesday morning on public right of way at Northwest 23rd Avenue and Glisan Street, where Bremik is constructing a building on a vacant lot, according to a Loy Clark Pipeline spokeswoman.

A Loy Clark Pipeline employee removing earth with a backhoe nicked an underground 1-inch coated steel pipe, resulting in a 3/4-inch gash and a nearby building becoming filled with gas, the spokeswoman said. The crew alerted authorities and the utility company, NW Natural, she added. At about 9:40 a.m., as firefighters were evacuating the area, two blasts about 10 seconds apart ripped through the building, sending material flying in all directions and a plume of thick smoke into the air.

The exact cause of the explosions is still unknown, pending an investigation by several agencies – Oregon State Patrol, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Portland Fire Bureau and the Portland Police Bureau.

Three firefighters, two police officers and three civilians suffered injuries.

Loy Clark Pipeline was founded in 1957. It specializes in underground utility work, directional drilling, conduit and vault work and saw cutting of asphalt and pavement. The company won’t release additional information about its employees, according to a spokeswoman. The company’s crew had obtained all necessary clearances to perform the work it was doing, she said.

Bremik is building a 36,000-square-foot mixed-use building at the site, which formerly held a Plaid Pantry store. The developer of the $14.8 million project is Rosehill Investments Inc. and the designer is Ankrom Moisan Architects.

The building destroyed by the explosions contained a bagel shop and a tattoo shop. Another building nearby, 2281 Glisan, was significantly damaged by the blasts. It was designed by Allied Works Architecture and completed in 2000. It housed a Dosha Salon location and condominium units.