Arson attack closes Albury businesses on Dean Street, police on scene

The blaze was reported late on Monday night at the back of Bed Bath 'n' Table.

Initial enquiries suggest a wheelie bin was set on fire in a laneway about 10.20pm before flames spread to the building.

A large pile of damaged merchandise has been removed from the Dean Street business.

Those nearby tried to put out the flames before fire crews arrived.

Police crime scene officers remain at the scene on Tuesday morning.

Bed Bath and Table and surrounding businesses including Fiducian Financial Services remain closed.

There is extensive security camera coverage of the area which captured the incident.

Investigators have released a statement about what occurred.

"Police are investigating a suspicious shop fire in the state's Murray River region yesterday," a police spokeswoman said.

"Emergency services were called to a building on Dean Street, Albury, about 10.20pm (Monday 5 December 2022), following reports of a fire.

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"Initial inquiries suggest a wheelie bin was set alight at the rear of the building, before spreading into the ground floor.

"Fire and Rescue NSW attended and extinguished the blaze; however, the storage unit of the shop - and its contents - were extensively damaged.

"The shop and residential unit on the floor above were both unoccupied at the time and there are no reports of injury.

Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Stewart Alexander said firefighters were on scene until about 3am, and police investigators remained at the site until about midday on Tuesday.

"We had four trucks there and about 20 firefighters, who did a really good job in preventing the fire spreading to the rest of the building," he said.

"There was hundreds-of-thousands of dollars worth of stock damaged by the fire.

"There was a heavy fire load and they had to remove a lot of it to make sure it was extinguished."

Lyndsay Wayenberg, of Fiducian Financial Services, said she had been notified of the blaze about midnight.

She said there had been previous incidents in the area and there were often homeless people sleeping in the laneway.

She attended the scene on Tuesday morning but was unable to access the damaged building, but was hopeful of returning to work soon.

"We're definitely closed today," Ms Wayenberg said.

"We might be able to get back up there this afternoon, fingers crossed."

Officers attached to Murray River Police District established a crime scene and commenced an investigation into the cause of the fire, which is being treated as suspicious.

"As inquiries continue, anyone with information is urged to call Albury Police on 6023 9299 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000."

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