Pressure is mounting on the WA government to push through legislation to give police powers to shut down illegal tobacco stores as fears mount that rival supplier wars are now spreading to the South West.
On Sunday morning, police were called to an incident on Spencer Street in Bunbury after a suspected firebombing gutted a convenience store and several nearby businesses.
The suspected arson attack destroyed four businesses on the Bunbury street. Credit: 9 News Perth
Allure Beauty & Co owner Amy Howes told 9News Perth she believed the convenience store next door, which is believed to have sold illegal vapes and tobacco, was the intended target of the arson.
Her shop and a neighbouring dentist and pizza shop were destroyed by the fire.
“We kind of knew that we were going to be collateral damage if something did escalate because of how close we are to each other, but never in my wildest dreams did we expect it to be to this extent,” she said.
“It’s shutdown our livelihoods. The dentist has been here for 32 years, we’ve been here for three years.
“The destruction in there is just insane, and it’s not going to be salvageable, we’ll literally be starting from scratch.”
Howe said her beauty shop had been broken into through a manhole in the past, with the culprits mistaking her store for the convenience shop. She also said the convenience store had been ram-raided before, with fears the criminal activity was being fuelled by WA’s growing tobacco wars.
The state government is currently working on reforms to strengthen its tobacco laws, with the penalties for selling illicit tobacco or vapes in WA still among the weakest in the country.
