Five days after a massive fire destroyed an iconic downtown Victoria hotel, police are still searching for its caretaker.
Mike Draeger remains unaccounted for after the old Plaza Hotel at the corner of Pandora and Government streets was engulfed in flames Monday morning.
On Thursday, Victoria Fire Department Deputy Chief Chris Royle said they are assisting police in their search, but couldn’t say whether Draeger was inside the building.
WATCH: (Aired May 6) Fire destroys iconic Victoria hotel
Victoria Police Const. Matthew Rutherford said Friday investigators are doing everything they can and are requesting the public’s help in the search, but couldn’t provide a photo of Draeger.
“We’re asking anyone in the public that know where he is or knows how to get a hold of him to get in touch with us,” Rutherford said.
Royle said crews have tried to look inside as many rooms from the front side of the building as possible, but have not seen evidence of a body.
Crews have had trouble accessing parts of the structure as hot spots continue to flare up.
On Friday, firefighters were still spraying water on the site while excavators tore down more sections of the old hotel, which had stood for roughly a century but had been empty for roughly six years.
Plans were in place to potentially turn the building into condominiums.
Thursday saw the opening of the west sidewalk of Government Street between Johnson and Pandora, along with parts of City Hall nearby.
City Hall was fully reopened Friday, after being forced to relocate its planned council and committee meetings to the CRD building a block away on Fisgard Street Thursday.
Some businesses in the area are still closed due to smoke damage, including Cherry Bomb Toys, which sits behind the hotel and also houses the National Toy Museum of Canada.
The store posted pictures of the scene to Facebook Friday, saying crews were now cutting down the walls in the back of the Plaza.
Store owner B Woodward said the closure has been devastating for him and his family.
“Everything has been affected. Our life is insane,” he said, adding the store may not be able to open until June due to the toxic chemicals from the old building that seeped inside.
“All those things burning up, it’s all poisonous gases,” Woodward said. “That all went into our store, into all of our vintage toys.
“We’re going through a process right now to clean it up and clean the air and clean the product. Hopefully it works. If it doesn’t, we’re going to have to take it all out and do more of a manual situation with it.”
Meanwhile, a GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help raise money for the store.
Royle said Thursday the cause of the fire is still under investigation, but added the scene is still too unsafe for investigators to enter.
“We have our investigation team together now and they’re getting information together to prepare for it, but it’s still not a safe scene to have people start the active investigation.”
— With files from Kylie Stanton
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