WATERLOO REGION — A 14-year-old boy charged with arson in a fire that destroyed a Waterloo dollar store glanced at his parents during a brief court appearance on Monday.

As the teen was in Kitchener court, insurance investigators and restoration specialists were at work at the Parkdale Plaza on Albert Street, where the Dollarama store lay in ruins and adjacent businesses were saturated in soot.

Engineers and officials from the Electrical Safety Authority were also at the site assessing the damage. Utilities remain shut off to the entire plaza, and it's not clear when individual businesses will be able to reopen.

The Ontario Fire Marshal's office is leading the arson investigation.

A damage estimate wasn't available Monday as insurance adjusters will have to tally up the damages from each business before a total is known.

The Waterloo teen, handcuffed and wearing a green jail outfit in the prisoner's box, was in court for less than five minutes.

He is charged with arson and possession of an incendiary device. Details about how the fire was allegedly started were not spelled out in court.

The teen was remanded in custody and his next court appearance, via video link, was set for Sept. 21.

He said little during his court appearance and was ordered not to have any contact with a named person. The teen said he understood the order.

Duty counsel David Woodbeck said the teen might engage the services of a lawyer in Hamilton. The boy will speak to the lawyer before his next court appearance.

The fire was reported inside the Dollarama store at about 4 p.m. Friday, forcing the evacuation of the plaza and a shelter-in-place order for some nearby residents due to heavy smoke.

A number of neighbouring businesses were also affected by the fire, with varying degrees of heat, smoke and water damage. Fencing and yellow fire line tape now block access to more than half of the plaza.

Cindy Gagne, who owns Parkdale Pet Place beside Dollarama, hadn't been allowed into her store as of mid-afternoon Monday.

"I have no idea what it looks like in there," she said, standing in the parking lot with a few other store owners.

"You have to be patient and hope for the best."

The air quality inside Heffernan's Jewellery, four doors from Dollarama, is terrible, according to owner Tim Heffernan.

"You can't stay in for any length of time," he said. "You instantly get a bad headache."

Staff were allowed in briefly on Saturday to retrieve customer orders and repairs, which can be picked up at Heffernan's second location on Laurelwood Drive.

Greg Watson's Water Depot store had only been open 17 days before the fire struck. His store, two doors from Dollarama, suffered smoke and water damage.

A few doors further down, new owners had taken over the K.W. Asian Food store the day the fire broke out, Watson said.

"I think we're all going to take a big financial hit," Heffernan's wife, Marg, said.

"It's crushing.It's your livelihood."

When the first fire truck pulled up five minutes after the 9-1-1 call came in on Friday, thick smoke was already pouring from Dollarama and flames were growing rapidly inside, Waterloo Fire Rescue Chief Richard Hepditch said.

Store staff had already ushered everyone outside.

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"They did a great job ensuring their safety and the safety of customers," Hepditch said.

At the height of the blaze, 64 firefighters were at the scene. Two were taken to hospital for observation of "work-related stress," Hepditch said.

Kitchener sent an aerial truck to assist, while firefighters from Cambridge and Wellesley shuttled air tanks to and from the scene. It took 13 hours for the fire to be declared under control.

There are no sprinklers in the plaza — when it was constructed, the building code of the day didn't require them, Hepditch said.

Today's building code may not require them in a store like that, either, he added.

"The building performed remarkably well" despite the "significant fire load" inside, Hepditch said.

On Monday, an investigator took photos inside the Dollarama store, where blackened merchandise was visible amid the wreckage from the partial collapse of the roof.

The back wall of the store was brought down on Saturday amid fears it would collapse.

A drone piloted by Pat Van Bakel, president and chief executive of claims management firm Crawford & Company, hovered over the scene to survey the damage.

The technology is helpful in instances where access is restricted, Van Bakel said.

"Obviously after a loss, information is everything," he said.

A protective mask covering his face, Craig Yantz and his sister, Denise Price, took a break from cleanup at their Homestyle Diner.

Bags of spoiled food sat on the sidewalk — everything had to go, by order of public health officials.

Despite the loss and not knowing when they'll be back in business, the pair remained upbeat.

"We're the fortunate ones at this end," Yantz said.

"We feel very blessed to have our business still standing with minimal damage. There are lots of tenants in here far less fortunate than us."