Caretaker Michael Draeger is a suspect in the arson fire that destroyed the Plaza Hotel in May 2019, Victoria police said Thursday.
The building was unoccupied except for Draeger, and investigators believe he might have died in the blaze.
The five-storey former hotel had also been home to Monty’s Showroom Pub. It burned for several days starting May 6, 2019. The Victoria Fire Department handed the scene to police on May 13 after determining the fire was suspicious.
Brad Sifert, the Victoria Fire Department’s assistant chief of fire prevention, said indications of arson included signs that sprinkler systems had been tampered with. Crews arrived to find fires burning on the fourth floor and the basement, and there could have been more, he said.
“So that in itself was suspicious.”
Det. Const. Andre Almeida, a member of the Victoria police Major Crime Unit and the department’s lead arson investigator, said Draeger emerged as a suspect as the case progressed, noting that whoever set the fire was very familiar with the building.
“From the evidence that we have obtained through our investigation, it really points to [the arsonist] having an intimate knowledge of the building that somebody else would not have.
“So we believe that everything points to Mr. Draeger as the suspect.”
Police investigators searched the building site for 10 days once the fire was under control and the scene was safe, using excavators working in a grid pattern to search for evidence.
No human remains were found.
Almeida said a cleanup of the site has since been done by owners Ocean Gate Developments and nothing was located in that process, either.
Experts in the detection of remains were also consulted, he said.
“What we had learned is that there is potential that we would have never been able to find anything in there, just due to the heat and the fact that the fire went on for such a long period of time.”
No motive for the fire has emerged.
There is no evidence of any bank activity by Draeger since the fire and no sign of him having left the country.
Draeger became caretaker at the hotel when it closed in 2013 and lived on the third floor. He had a workshop in the basement where he had a collection of carpentry tools.
Audrey Draeger of Thunder Bay told the Times Colonist last May that she believed he was her missing stepson, describing him as a “loner type” who enjoyed woodworking and fly-fishing.
Almeida said the building owners have been co-operative throughout the investigation, while Sifert said the owner was up-to-date with inspections when the fire happened,
“We were working with the owner and the owner’s agent to do inspections,” Sifert said. “We had performed an inspection prior to this.”
Nick Askew of Ocean Gate Developments said in January that the company hopes to start building on the site in about a year, following design work and approvals from the city.
Several businesses close to the fire were damaged, with Moksana Yoga Centre on Pandora Avenue shutting for about a week and Cherry Bomb Toys on Broad Street for more than a month.
Heidi Sherwood, owner of the Sattva Spa, which shared a wall with the Plaza Hotel, said she did not plan to reopen.
Police would like to hear from anyone who has information on the Plaza Hotel fire or Draeger. Call police at 250-995-7654 and press #1, or call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
