Fire guts popular Windaroo shops once dogged by chroming

Police will investigate a fire which gutted a suburban shopping centre south of Brisbane overnight.

Fire has ripped through a popular set of shops, gutting a chemist, bakery and hairdresser.

Firefighters were called to the Windaroo shops on Carl Heck Boulevard just after 10.30pm but were unable to save many of the shops.

Nearby residents watched in horror as the blaze lit up the night sky.

Fireys were still at the scene three hours later dampening the site down and cordoning off the area.

Firefighters at the scene.

Windaroo resident Rebecca Cannon said the loss of the shops would affect the community.

“There’s got to be some kind of backup system for these things,” she said on Facebook.

“My meds are on order and due in on Monday, maybe they’ll divert to another location.”

Fireys, police and ambulance services were called to help out and the area around the corner of Beaudesert Beenleigh Rd and Carl Heck Boulevard at Windaroo has been cordoned off.

Road closures are expected to remain in place and motorists have been asked to stay away from the site.

Fireys at the Windaroo shops.

Residents and those with respiratory conditions have also been asked to keep doors and windows closed.

The road reopened early Sunday

The set of shops were at the centre of complaints to police in 2018 when the anchor tenant Supa IGA was forced to take aerosol cans of deodorant off its shelves after claims children as young as 11 were stealing them for chroming.

At the time, the store’s owner said security had been stepped up at night because kids who had been barred from shopping centres in Beenleigh were using the shops for chroming.