FRESH START FOR BURNT FRUIT SHOP
A POPULAR Surf Coast fruit and produce shop destroyed by fire almost 11 months ago will reopen today.
Peach’s Torquay suffered more than $1 million damage when a faulty evaporative cooler caused a the blaze to start inside the Surf Coast Highway store just before midnight on January 23.
It took firefighters more than four hours to extinguish the blaze which, recovered security footage confirmed, started in the roof before gutting the fully stocked store.
Owners Graeme and Lu Pilgrim and their children Judd Pilgrim and Larni Chafer have had the business for 10 years.
“We all raced to the shop because at the beginning I think we were all hoping it would be just a little fire,” Ms Chafter said. “Mum actually left the building only 15 minutes before it all filled with smoke.
“You always hear of these things happening but they never happen to you or people you know ... when we woke up the next day I thought it was a dream.”
The family has spent the past year travelling Australia looking for new ideas to bring to their loyal Surf Coast customers.
“We have lots of new things happening, a lot of new lines, a huge organic and floral section, and we have really tried to source some great vegetarian and vegan options,” Ms Chafer said. “We have lots of fresh salads and cut fruit available. Basically we want to make it easy for our customers to eat local and fresh.”
The new store took eight months of planning, 10 weeks of construction and a month of fit out to complete.