Tauranga fire investigator Jon Rewi says the fire in the rear of this premises was suspicious. Photo/George Novak
Tauranga fire investigator Jon Rewi says the fire in the rear of this premises was suspicious. Photo/George Novak
A "suspicious" fire partly destroyed a storage shed behind a central Tauranga cafe and shop this morning.
Tauranga fire investigator Jon Rewi said he and the police were still investigating the "suspicious fire" on 2nd Ave, but said he could not say yet how the fire started.
Emergency services werecalled to the scene about 5.09am after an off-duty police officer saw the large flames and rang 111, the Bay of Plenty Times was told.
Tenanted owners of The Cottage Cafe and Simply Jewels businesses, who share the front building and storage shed, were still reeling from their wakeup calls from police.
Firefighters at the scene of a fire in the rear workshop and office at a local business premises in 2nd Avenue. Photo/Supplied
A devastated Jo Logan, who took over The Cottage Cafe six weeks ago, said some of the building's windows and the panes of two doors were smashed, indicating people had tried to get inside before setting fire to the 8m by 3.6m storage shed.
The shed was also being used as an office by Simply Jewels owner Chantelle Boyd.
Boyd, who has been at the 2nd Ave location for 14 years, said the storage shed contained a large number of her products.
She lost a huge amount of stock, including irreplaceable items of clothing under repair for some of her customers, she said.
It was too early to say how much stock as their insurance assessors were yet to visit to establish the full extent of the damage and losses, Boyd said.
"The fire has caused a horrendous mess, and at this stage, we have no idea whether anything has been stolen, and it could take some time to do that."
The damage caused by a suspicious fire at a Tauranga central business premises. Photo/Supplied
Logan said they were told the heat of the blaze blew the door of the storage shed out.
The main building could have also gone up in flames in another 20 minutes, she said.
"A big thank-you must go to the off-duty police officer that our business premises is still intact," she said.
Both business owners said while there was a "fire in their bellies" over what happened, they were determined to carry on.
"There is no reason for this to have happened. We're not going to let these mongrels deter us from opening tomorrow," Boyd said.
Police confirmed they were investigating the fire.
Anyone who has any information about the fire is urged to call police on 07 577 4300 or phone the Crimestoppers line anonymously on 0800 555 111.
