By KATH GANNAWAY
POLICE are treating a fire at a Seville tattoo shop in the early hours of this morning as suspicious and have sealed it off as a crime scene.
Seville CFA were called out about 1.50am and arrived to find the ground-floor shop occupied by Valley Custom Tattoo fully involved.
As Lilydale CIU and police arson chemists arrived on site about 9.30am there were reports of a fire at another tattoo shop in Lilydale.
Melbourne media was also linking a drive-by shooting at Beaconsfield with the Seville fire, but police were remaining tight-lipped saying only that the building was a crime scene and investigations would be ongoing.
The owner of the business, who gave his name as Greg, told the Mail he had lost memories, six years of artwork and pictures and equipment.
He said there were also three or four people who worked there who had also lost work, and their workplace.
He also has a shop in Healesville and another on the Mornington Peninsula.
While declining to comment on talk around town of bike club involvement, he said he was angry, but not surprised at what had happened.
“It’s not the best place out there at the moment,” he said.
“There’s a lot of cr*p out there, a lot of people doing it pretty hard and people blaming the wrong people.
“It’ll come out in the wash,“ he added.
“Right now, I’m wondering how I feed the kids.”
The fire has already had an impact on other businesses in the building including the Seville Bakery, Yarra Valley Valuations and Golden Age Homes, whose owners and staff arrived to find their businesses off limits.
Bakery owner Kim Nguon said she was unable to say when they would be able to re-open.
“It will cost us,” she said.
The owner of Golden Age Homes said their business was heavily reliant on computers and that they wouldn’t be able to operate again until they were back online – presuming that their computer system had survived.
Seville CFA Captain David Clark said the fire was confined to the lower floor tattoo shop with minor damage to the windows in the upper floor.
“It was burning very hot and has blown out all the windows on the bottom level,” he said.
On speculation about the cause, Captain Clark said that would come down to police investigations.
