00:01last night just after half past seven authorities were called to a fire at this tobacco and vape
00:08shop just behind me in watsonia it's a residential area northeast of melbourne city about 20 kilometers
00:15from the cbd now they managed to put out the fire pretty quickly there was someone working inside in
00:22the back room at the time the fire happened but they were able to get out without injury and also
00:29luckily this fire did not spread to the adjoining businesses here on watsonia road now this morning
00:36there has been a police unit keeping an eye on the crime scene as you can see this tape just
00:41around
00:41that little front area of the shop and there's some damaged goods at the front including rolling
00:47papers there's a burnt out esky and other products that have been damaged there's a bit of damage that
00:53you can see at the front of the shop as well just on that front desk but the the structure
00:57is still
00:58intact now this is one of several suspicious fires that victoria police different police units are
01:05investigating in victoria at the moment police don't know where at this stage whether this one
01:10is linked to any bikey groups or organized crime networks it's too early to tell but hopefully we'll
01:17get more answers as the investigation continues i spoke to a few residents this morning saying they're
01:23really surprised something like this would happen in such a quiet neighborhood area one man said
01:28uh it makes him feel unsafe uh because he didn't expect what sonia to be part of this ongoing uh
01:35tobacco shop fire narrative we've been seeing uh in the past couple of years
