77-year-old Kansas man missing after hotel fire in western Newfoundland

A 77-year-old Kansas man visiting western Newfoundland has not been seen since the evening before fire destroyed his hotel, police said Monday.

Eugene Earl Spoon was a guest at the Driftwood Inn in Deer Lake, N.L., police confirmed. The hotel caught fire early Saturday.

“We’re continuing to search for him as a missing person,” Cpl. Jolene Garland said in an interview. “We cannot say he remained in the hotel during the fire, and we cannot say that he (did) not. He’s unaccounted for.”

Spoon was last seen on Friday evening in Deer Lake, and efforts were underway Monday to search the burned area, she added.

Emergency crews began arriving at the inn at around 7 a.m. Saturday. Several fire departments from the area were called in to help battle the fire.

Stephen Rowsell, Deer Lake’s fire chief, said the blaze was the largest he has fought in his 23-year career. It took crews at least 16 hours to douse the final hot spot, he added.

Deer Lake is about 400 kilometres northwest of St. John’s and is home to about 4,800 people. The Driftwood Inn was in a large building on the southwest edge of the town, and it included a restaurant and a pub. Both were destroyed along with the hotel, Rowsell said.

Though the provincial Progressive Conservative Opposition said Monday that it heard from guests there were no alarms going off as the building burned, Rowsell said there were alarms ringing on the outside of the building.

“When we showed up, there were alarms activated,” he said. “If it was from somebody inside that activated the manual pull station, or if it was the automatic alarm, I don’t know, but I do know that there were alarms sounding when we arrived.”

Police and the provincial office of fire and emergency services are investigating what happened, he added.

Chris Tibbs, the Progressive Conservative critic for fire and emergency services, called on the province’s Liberal government to launch a “thorough investigation” into the fire.

“Serious questions have been raised about the safety and emergency plan of that building,” he said in a news release.

Nobody from the hotel responded immediately to requests for comment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024