By Canadian Press

Caretaker of vacant Victoria hotel still missing, days after blaze

May 10, 2019 | 1:12 PM

VICTORIA — Firefighters in Victoria continue to battle a stubborn blaze that tore through a vacant 109-year-old heritage building Monday and forced the closure of nearby city hall, businesses and major downtown traffic routes.

Victoria Fire Chief Paul Bruce said Mike Draeger, the caretaker at the former Plaza Hotel, is missing. Victoria Police want Draeger or anybody who knows of his whereabouts to contact the police.

Bruce said Wednesday the fire is still not out and firefighters continue to look for and extinguish hotspots.

He said the cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

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“When I see some of the timbers coming out of here this morning, that fire was either burning undetected for a long time or there was rapid spread,” Bruce said at a news conference across the street from the fire scene. “At this point, I can’t comment on one or the other.”

One wall collapsed and the roof caved in at the height of the fire, while guests at a neighbouring hotel were forced to evacuate because smoke and water were spilling in from next door.

Firefighters were at the top of a fully extended ladder Wednesday spraying water down onto the smoking structure, while heavy equipment operators piled beams, bricks and twisted metal into a growing mountain of debris near the former hotel.

Fencing kept onlookers at bay, while signs warned “do not enter, collapse zone.”

Bruce said firefighters are still finding hot spots in the building’s below-ground basement which was being used as a storage area for construction materials, mattresses and old furniture. He said firefighters and engineers are concerned the floor above the basement could collapse from the weight of water being poured on the structure.

City engineering director Fraser Work said crews planned to pull down the top-floor wall of the building to prevent it from crashing onto nearby Government Street, which has been closed to traffic since the fire was reported. A Mountain Equipment Co-op warehouse outlet, also closed since Monday, is located across the street from the fire scene.

“We’re trying to safeguard the building,” he said. “We’re trying to safeguard the people in the machines and we’re trying to safeguard Government Street so we don’t have a bunch of damage that goes into the Mountain Equipment Co-op building and goes into the right of way.”

Work said engineers have little confidence in the strength of the remaining structure that faces Government Street and the MEC warehouse across the street.

“The next move here is to hook up a cable to the upper floor, the fourth floor and to pull that into the internal part of the structure in order to remove that risk of collapse,” he said.

Work said he could not estimate when the street and surrounding businesses would be open again. Nearby media outlets have been broadcasting from local hotels and other buildings after smoke from the fire forced them from their newsrooms.

Victoria city council’s regular Thursday meeting has been moved from city hall to a the regional district office, one block from the fire scene.

Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press