The rear of 111 South St. was blown off in the explosion on May 29, 2017.

A nearly 10-month-old house explosion and fire in Butler has apparently been solved.

State police Wednesday obtained arrest warrants for William L. Gold, 50, of Butler and Robert J. Wilhelm, 39, of Washington Township.

Investigators allege Gold paid Wilhelm to burn down the two-story house at 111 South St. on May 29, 2017.

The day before, the two men allegedly broke into the home and stole a safe purportedly filled with money that belonging to a pair of suspected Philadelphia drug dealers.

The Memorial Day fire, police believe, was set to cover up the earlier crime.

Gold and Wilhelm are accused of a list of felonies including arson and burglary.

Rumors in the neighborhood swirled about the reason behind the fire from the onset. Some residents alluded to the rip-off of the purported dealers staying there. Others speculated it was a meth lab gone wrong.

The explosion and fire shook the block about 1 a.m. It was bad enough, city firefighters found, that it blew out the front door.

The entire back wall on the first floor and basement were immediately gone and one of the side walls was buckled.

Butler police evacuated some neighbors living closest to the house, including Gold and his family, who were living next door.

In a short time, flames had devoured the rental house, which was vacant. The two tenants were in the Butler County Prison following their arrests days earlier on felony drug charges.

Trooper Luke Nelson, a deputy fire marshal, was unable to determine a cause and eventually listed the blaze as undetermined.

The investigation remained dormant until authorities got a tip that named names. The information would prove virtually spot on.

Nelson and Trooper Christopher Balcik, a criminal investigator who also serves as a deputy fire marshal, on Dec. 14 interviewed Wilhelm.

He waived his Miranda warnings and, according to court documents, sang like the proverbial canary.

Wilhelm recounted that on May 28, Gold, who he identified as a “friend and fellow drug addict,” and another man he only knew by the last name Miller,” called and asked for his help to steal a large safe from the South Street house.

By the time the troopers talked to Wilhelm, they already knew Gold's connection to the house.

To learn more about this case, read Thursday's Butler Eagle.