Like other onlookers who congregated around Turner’s Furniture One on Saturday morning, manager Steve Turner stood helpless as a suspicious fire ravaged his family business.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But while the shop was gutted, and years of history became little more than ashes, the strength and goodwill of the community shone through.
“It’s good to know the town you live in is going to support your back…you do try to support your community, that’s part of being a local business but it’s just come back 50 times over for us. It sort of leaves you a bit speechless,” he said.
“I went to Woolies the other day and it took me probably an hour and a half to get out…people everywhere offered me help see what they could do.
“The town looks after you.”
Despite the suspicious nature of the fire and the possibility it was lit as a result of a botched break and enter, Steve and his family are seeing the bigger picture.
“You get the whatevers that do this…but it reminds you that 99 per cent of the town is good. It’s only the one per cent of the town that’s scumbags.”
He had praise for the dedicated team of emergency service people who worked tirelessly to contain the blaze.
And then there were the anonymous heroes, who helped 23-year-old Laura Mearns jump from her apartment above the warehouse.
Trapped, unable to exit by the stairs, the men drove a van for her to jump onto.
“The guys that saved the young girl that jumped off the back, they’ve kind of disappeared into the wilderness those guys,” Steve said.
“They’re real heroes they need a real good pat on the back.”
There are already community members rallying to support the occupants of the upstairs apartments who lost everything in the blaze, organising fundraisers.
Steve said petty vandals had previously targeted the store, lighting fires at the bins out the back.
But when he and his wife Natalie drove into town on Saturday morning and saw the smoke billowing into the air, they knew it was something more.
“When we came in over the hill and saw the smoke we obviously knew it was something a lot more serious than a little tiny bin fire. I was gutted to be honest, I was just shocked,” he said.
“You can’t go near it, you can’t touch it, you can’t save anything, and you just gotta watch it go, you just don’t know what to do. You’re just a bit numb.”
Choices Flooring next door sustained smoke and water damage, and was only saved from fire by the efforts of firefighters.
Store owner Jamie Callaghan also watched on helplessly as the fire came perilously close to his store.
He’s now relying on a generator for electricity and making his way through the major job of cleaning the heat and smoke damage.
But while front of house remains closed off, he’s open for business.
With the help of his staff, Steve is also back in business mode, currently sourcing a new location with the hope of re-opening soon.
“We’ve got a lot of customers that have stock and things like that… they can rest assured we have quite a bit of warehouse storage so we’ll be able to look after everybody,” he said.
“Everyone is working overtime, there’s no time off, and the guys have been great.
“I know they were as gutted as I was watching it the other day and they stayed here all day and they haven’t stopped since.”
With detectives working hard to determine the cause of the blaze, Steve urged anyone with information to come forward.
“Anything somebody saw, even if it seems insignificant - maybe on the way to work you saw someone parked outside - could really help with the investigation,” he said.
