The owner of Body Beyond Belief in Penrith said he won’t give up on his business after a fire tore through the premises late last week.
Being treated as suspicious, the fire was reported to emergency services at about 1.35am last Thursday, March 24.
Fire and Rescue NSW officers attended the scene and extinguished the blaze a short time later, with the front of the shop left completely destroyed.
Director of the company, Stan Turek, had just recently finished renovating the premises.
“I was gutted but I was more in shock than anything else – I didn’t know how to react,” he said.
The business was at Shop 4 at 100 Henry Street but Mr Turek was able to secure a new location, just four doors down, and managed to re-open this week.
Around 30 people were at the premises on Good Friday to get the clean up process started.
“I still can’t believe how many people came down to help me, especially when they should have been with their families for Easter,” he said.
“Everyone really helped to keep my chin up and were so amazing.”
Officers attached to Penrith Local Area Command are currently investigating the fire, with witnesses or anyone with information urged to come forward and contact Crime Stoppers.
Mr Turek remains devastated.
“I never wanted anything like this to happen and it feels like someone wants to take it away from me but I’m not going to give up – I’m here to support people and make a change in their lives,” Mr Turek said.
“It’s amazing to hear stories from the community about how important the shop is to them and how I helped change their lives – that’s worth more to me than money, I just love what I do.”
Mr Turek has several Body Beyond Belief shops in both NSW and Queensland.
