Blasts heard before Craigieburn tobacco shop blaze
The owner of a Craigieburn shop gutted by fire in the latest firebombing has pleaded for an end to Melbourne’s escalating tobacco turf war.
Police & Courts
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The owner of a shop that was completely destroyed in the latest firebombing has pleaded for an end to Melbourne’s tobacco wars.
Con Khalil, who has owned the shop since 1996, told the Herald Sun it was “lucky” no one was inside when explosions turned the Smeaton Court store into a fireball.
“(Over the years) a few things have happened like robberies but this is … all my dreams gone,” he said.
“I just want to say to the people that did this, please stop.
“If you want something from the shop, break in and get it. Don’t burn it.”
Mr Khalil said the shop had previously been run as a milk bar but had been turned into a tobacconist about two years ago.
He said the tenant was currently in Lebanon, but had called him about 7am to tell him the property had been gutted.
Police and firefighters were called to the Craigieburn shop – at the corner of Smeaton Court and Bridgewater Rd – about 3.30am on January 14.
Videos posted to social media flames shooting metres above the store and embers floating down, while loud crackling sounds can also be heard.
A house at the rear of the shop was also damaged in the blaze, which is being treated as suspicious.
Neighbour Stephen Darnley told the Herald Sun he woke to the sound of explosions.
“I got up to see what it was and the shop was on fire, there were flames coming out the front door,” he said.
“There were explosions going off and … the whole place went up.
“When the explosions were going off debris was flying overhead and the house was shaking.”
Kalhara Kukulhee, who lives opposite the shop, said it was scary to see such a huge blaze.
“It was like New Year’s Eve fireworks,” he said.
Sam Laiosa was evacuated from his home on Sunday morning as the flames came “scarily close”.
“The police came to my door and said ‘everybody out’,” he said.
“I was scared I was going to lose my house.”
Debris from the explosions have damaged his hot water system, as well as some of the tiles on his roof and pot plants in his backyard.
The Craigieburn fire is the third tobacco shop blaze in a week, with a shop in Altona torched twice in two days.
Four men with alleged links to the Finks outlaw motorcycles gang were charged over six fire bombings at tobacco shops across Melbourne in recent weeks that caused up to $80,000 worth of damage.
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