The once infamous Holiday Court motel at 740 Hillside Ave.
was damaged by fire Sunday morning.

Emergency crews were called to the smouldering 22-room
building just after 6 a.m.

More than a dozen firefighters, three fire trucks, police
and paramedics were on hand, blocking traffic from Douglas
to Blanshard streets until mid-morning.

The Victoria Fire Department worked to quell the fire that
started in a basement storage space being used by
neighbouring business SG Power and spread through the walls
to the second floor.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. No one
was inside, fire officials said.

Fire department Battalion Chief Bruce Rees said the
building sustained at least $110,000 of structural damage.

Bernie Simpson, the owner of SG Power, said Sunday he’s
been storing new outboard motors in a room on the motel’s
ground floor for the past few years.

He estimated there were about 30 motors in the room when
the fire broke out, half of which were destroyed. He pegged
the loss at about $40,000.

The boarded-up empty hotel, once famous for attracting drug
addicts, dealers and crime, was sold in 2005 for $1.9-
million to Andrew Sheret Holdings Ltd., known for its bath
and kitchen products.

The sale was heralded as a step in cleaning up the area —
one of the capital’s busiest intersections. Before a
crackdown on crime at the motel in 2002, police were called
there often, including 371 times in 2000. Dealers could be
seen tossing drugs out of windows to buyers, who’d toss
money back in. Prostitution and robberies were part of the
scene.

“It’s the end of an era,” said Victoria fire Capt. Robert
Klatt, as firefighters broke through a second-floor room to
hose the fire spreading upward through the walls.

Despite high hopes for the motel site, it has sat empty and
locked since the 2005 sale — an eyesore with peeling grey
paint between the bustling Long and McQuade music store, SG
Power and Volvo Victoria.

“As far as we can tell, it’s been abandoned for years,”
Victoria police acting Sgt. Brent Robertson said at the
scene. “The doors are padlocked.”

Simpson said street people sometimes hang around the
building at night, but noted there have not been problems
since Sheret took over as owner.

No one from Andrew Sheret Holdings Ltd. could not be
reached for comment.

However, a custodian did arrive to secure the hotel.

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