Blanch was questioned on whether the incident was related to WA’s escalating tobacco wars, but said there was “nothing at the Morley market to suggest that’s the case”.
One of the men accused of being part of those escalating wars was banned from attending the same markets as part of his bail conditions last week.
Frida Tattoo Studio owner Mojgen Fakhar, who has worked in the market for seven years, said she was “in shock” after hearing the news from her shop neighbours.
“We aren’t being let in, but it looks like the whole building is destroyed,” she said.
“I woke to video calls from neighbours showing me the damage.”
Fakhar said she was anxious to assess the damage, as she had five tattoo machines worth between $2500 and $10,000. Her colleague had a skin treatment machine worth $100,000.
Fakhar’s studio had been robbed twice, three years ago, but overall her experience at the store was positive.
Amit Thakar, owner of repairs and key store Morley Market Multi Services, said the market was broken into just last week.
Thakar said most of the tenants were small business owners who he thought would unlikely be the target of an arson attack.
“I don’t know why anyone would have set (the shop) on fire,” he said.
“Most of us are family run, just like mine. Most of us don’t have insurance.”
He said it had become a place homeless people slept and “junkies” spent their time.
Authorities say it is still too dangerous to enter the building. Credit: 9 News Perth
Department of Fire and Emergency Services incident controller Andrew Duckworth said it was still too dangerous to enter the building.
“Every business in the market has been impacted to some extent. I’m not sure of the numbers at this stage,” he said.
“The roof of the building has collapsed and there’s a lot of smouldering still happening inside. It’s not safe to put our firefighters inside the building.
“We managed to contain [the fire] to the building of origin, there were a number of other buildings very close by, so we’ve stopped it spreading and impacting those building, however, by the time we arrived, it was fairly intense, and we weren’t able to contain it within the building.”
An emergency meeting with business owners will be held on Wednesday morning.
Peter Nguyen, from Bishop St Newsagency, posted to his businesses Instagram stating everything had been destroyed, before starting a GoFundMe page to “help support us in these hard times and to get our business back up on its feet”.
“The newsagency burned in a fire along with the whole of the Morley Market. We have been in business here for 20 years, and have lost everything in this disaster,” he wrote on the fundraising page.
“We don’t want Bishop St News to die, and I hope the community of Morley feels the same way. If you had any fond memories of our shop, please consider donating or sharing our story.”
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