Residents and business owners have spoken out about a fire which broke out in a shop in Harwich at the weekend.
The fire started at the former Wellworth-a-pound store on Dovercourt High Street on Sunday, July 12, at around 7pm.
Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, who sent 25 firefighters to the scene, believe the cause of the fire was deliberate.
People living in neighbouring flats were evacuated as a precaution and described the disruption and distress caused by the incident.
Elle Connah, who lives in one of the flats near the affected shop, was told by firefighters to evacuate for two hours with her toddler daughter.
Ms Connah said: "It was weird. I've never had it happen before, but obviously we just did what they asked us to do.
"We just waited outside until they let us back in.
"They just had to make sure that they got it contained quickly.
“But they said it wasn't a huge fire and there was a load of broken glass and stuff upstairs.
“I had no idea the fire was going on. I think because the wind was blowing away from my flat, I couldn't smell it for a little while.
“It wasn't until an hour after they turned up that you could sort of smell it.
“I don't think the fire was big enough to be able to see, but we saw the firefighters going up there and putting it out.”
Ms Connah also witnessed the door of a vacant unit in the flat being knocked down by firefighters to see if anyone was currently living there.
Jinu Puten was staying in the flat of pal Manu Matthews above Wellworth-a-pound and was sleeping at the time.
Another friend, who was also in the flat at the time, but left to go to the gym, saw there was a fire.
Mr Puten said: “He called me and said there is a fire in the neighbouring building.”
Mr Puten claims he saw smoke rising from the floorboards inside the apartment.
He said: "I just saw smoke. "It was coming from the back of the shop, and it was really thick.
"It wasn’t the fire that I saw, just the fumes.
“I was evacuated for about two hours.
“I couldn’t understand what was happening at the time.”
“It was scary.”
Mr Matthew was at work when the blaze started and said there was fortunately no damage caused by the fire to his flat.
Zena Smart, owner of ‘It’s All Handmade, one of the neighbouring shops to the fire, said: “What I was scared about, and I did come up here to check on, was that my landlord and landlady were okay.
"They are very elderly and they live upstairs.
“It frightened the life out of them.
"Luckily, the smell is minor.
"You can still smell it a little bit, but it's not affecting any of the goods."
Other nearby shop owners and residents said the vacant Wellworth-a-Pound store had been repeatedly targeted by vandals and break-ins.
One resident said they called police after seeing people on the roof.
Tammy Harris, manager of nearby Salons2, said: "The alarm was always going off, someone was always trying to get in."
Shaz Brown, a former manager at Wellworth-a-pound until it closed and current owner of Shaz and Save, said: "Because it was vacant, it made it vulnerable for people to get in.
"I worked there for 23 years and there were never any bad any incidents like this.
"When I heard the news, I felt sick.
"It’s quite sad. It was our happy place - a lovely place to work."
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