Croft Hotel Fire
Section of 4th Avenue is cordoned off to allow fire and emergency crews access to a fire at the Croft Hotel – photo 250News
Prince George, B.C.- Just before 8:00 this evening, Prince George Fire Rescue crews were called to a fire in the Croft Hotel on 4th Avenue between Dominion and George Streets.
Patrons reported smoke and flame coming from a vent inside the bar area of the hotel. 
Fifteen personnel from 3 halls responded to find heavy smoke in the bar area. While a crew searched the building to ensure all occupants were evacuated, other crews located a fire in a crawlspace beneath the first floor bar.
( at right, crews enter building with power tools to remove floor – photo,250News)
The fire was quickly brought under control, but significant overhaul is continuing to remove the floor of the bar to expose the source of the fire.
An investigator has been called to determine the cause of the fire.
There are no reports of anyone being inured .
Comments
dam!! So Close!
What stanwich? So close to having another hole in the ground owned by the city of pg?
I agree, Stanwich. ;)
Yep it was close.
” Fire, is everyone out? yes, oh ok, we’ll get there as soon as we finish our pizza.”
Indirect downtown revitalization?
Actually I think Stanwich meant the firehall was so close by …. ;-)
Yet again another Prince George Urban Renewal project. Seems the places that are roots for downtown crime and just simply an eye sore and an issue for police, tend to catch fire. Seeing how there is never any money put into over hauling these “premises” by the owners.
Maybe it’s simpler to burn it down and collect the insurance money and call it a day from their prospective. Walk away from the burnt out hole in the ground and go do something else. When one considers what it would cost to renovate one of these older non compliant buildings, it’s almost a catch 22.
Better a big hole for a fresh start than to waste hundreds of thousands to bring an eye sore up to current code. I am always happy to hear no one is injured of killed in one of these occurrences. But I am disheartened to see the city not stepping up with the owners to improve the core in a meaningful manner.
Parking meters won’t hurt the downtown core but trashy dangerous buildings drawing a less than upright element will. Time will tell what happens next……
I sure hope everyone is ok…fire can move so quickly through older buildings like that. I work downtown and pass by the Croft daily. I have noticed that over the last year the owners have painted the outside, and are continuing to update the premises. I walk by daily, and have also noticed much less “undesirables” hanging around the outside. It would be a shame for the city of Prince George to loose all its heritage buildings. Maybe the city should invest a little bit into helping the owners of these buildings to restore them then to loose them completely.
it still amazes me the amount of people who look down their noses at other people in this town, just because they do not look like you, act like you, dress like you that makes them more undesirable than you, i for one know numerous so-called “desirables” who have patronized these “undesirable” establishments. grow up these are people too, down on their luck most of them and sure they may have put themselves in their situations but they ARE people and most of them just want a smile and hi how are you.
I think if there was a redeeming factor with this place it was the mural that was painted on the west side of it. It gave it some character and personality. Unfortunately the new winners in all their wisdom chose to whitewash over it. Now it’s back to fugly town.
I posted this on Free for all Friday by mistake It really belongs here.
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“Better a big hole for a fresh start than to waste hundreds of thousands to bring an eye sore up to current code.”
Interesting point of view. Luckily not all communities have that point of view.
Just visited one yesterday. Coupeville on Whidbey Island in Washington State – a small community, but actually growing rather than getting smaller or being stagnant.
The buildings, unlike places like Nelson, are virtually all wooden building. The oldest I saw had a national historic places plaque on it showing that the building was built in 1866. That building is the blue one in the linked photo.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2728/4415345376_e3c4bb76ca_b.jpg
We ate in a wonderful “bar”, as the US calls them, with a great long bar at the entrance as tradition dictates and nice views of Penn Cove where some of the best mussels come from.
It is not the buildings that are the problem; it is the attitude/mindset of the people who live in the community.
IMHO, the mindset of the people in PG needs a bit of tweaking, to say the least.
[url]http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2728/4415345376_e3c4bb76ca_b.jpg[url]
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2728/4415345376_e3c4bb76ca_b.jpg
:-(
It was so sad to see the PG Hotel come down with an excavator, simply because there was probably a million dollars’ worth of timbers and lumber in that place, the kind we’ll never see again and is impossible to buy anymore. This is something I think should be carefully looked at when another one has to come down.
The city has nothing to lose and a lot to gain if any more old buildings have to be dismantled.
If the government had owned the land before it came down, they would have had a bit of an uphill battle to get gold or platinum LEED certification, which is likely what they will be going for with the WIDC.
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