Editor's note: We have seen the video and have chosen not to post it with this story, due to its graphic and disturbing content.
Video shot by a remote camera from the Croft Hotel on Fourth Avenue and aimed across the street shows a woman approaching the vacant building and then turning away an instant before it exploded Tuesday morning.
Doug Morrison, owner of the Croft, says it was a woman who had stopped to investigate something unusual at the former site of the Achillion Greek Cuisine restaurant.
“That was a girl and I think she worked for the city,” said Morrison. “She smelt it and I think she’s one in critical shape. It looks like she’s smelling the gas and it just blows up behind her. I couldn’t believe it. A girl that works for me, our manager, went out to try to rescue her.”
Three people were taken to hospital as a result of injuries suffered in the blast at around 7 a.m. Tuesday. One is in Vancouver hospital in critical condition and the other two are at UHNBC, listed in fair condition.
Morrison has owned the Croft since 2007 and knows the people well who frequent the hotel and bar, as well as the pawn shop and cheque-cashing businesses he also owns in downtown Prince George.
His sources on the street offered some clues as to what actually happened that morning.
“They were in there taking copper off of the pipes in there and then they go sell it,” said Morrison. “I think there were three or people inside that ran away after the explosion.
“Of all the people, she was just doing her job and had nothing to do with the stripping of copper or whatever they were doing.”
Firefighters from all four Prince George Fire Rescue halls fought the blaze for 5 ½ hours. The explosion scattered debris for several blocks and fire also spread to the adjacent UNBC Wood Innovation Research Lab.
“Everybody was running everywhere and they couldn’t shut the gas off, the gas kept going until one o’clock in the afternoon,” said Morrison.
“It must have been such a shock wave, all the front windows of the Croft are blown out.”
The Achillion shut down in 2016 and ever since the city’s unhoused population have used the covered carport that was attached to the building for shelter.
“The homeless have been in there quite a while and last week they broke in to get in there,” said Morrison. “There was a guy on the roof a half-hour before the explosion happened and if I go back far enough on the video, that pops up.
“I’ve called the police lots of times on them, they’ve been lighting fires right beside the gas main. There was black marks up the side of the building from them lighting fires to stay warm all winter.”
Morrison turned over his surveillance video to police after it was requested by the RCMP.
