The day after Tuesday’s structure fire, one Vernon business says it found previously lit candles under its recycling.
There has been an outpouring of support for the Vernon businesses lost in Tuesday’s structure fire.
Now, some business owners downtown are voicing their concerns about the safety of their own stores.
Shayla Cole, owner of Hot Bread Shoppe, said Wednesday morning, she found candles that had been previously lit under her recycling. It's something she says she's never seen before.
An Instagram story from the business said: “Someone is definitely trying to start fires" and warned others about what the bread shop had found.
Sherry Davis with Kala Shoes and Repairs said she’s worried about the suspicious nature of the fire and said, “It’s pretty scary if it’s something that could’ve been prevented.”
Davis says she’s been experiencing safety concerns for a while, adding people run into her store acting odd. She has also had people sleeping in her entrance and defecating in her dumpsters.
“I’m not sure what Vernon’s going to do about that.”
Brian Leneveu from Distinctive Decor Antiques said he wasn’t sure what started the fire, but he’s concerned about what he’s seen on social media, saying he’s seen people suggest it was started in a dumpster out back or by homeless people.
“That’s my concern; if it could happen there, it could happen here,” said Leneveu.
“If there was another cause to it like electrical or some unknown thing, then that’s a different story, but if it was deliberately started .. that’s a concern.”
A number of business owners told Castanet they worried their opinion wasn’t politically correct and didn’t want to go on camera, but said they were worried about how the fire started and the safety of their own stores.
These safety and security concerns are not new for downtown businesses.
The Vernon Chamber of Commerce told Castanet earlier this year that security was a “significant concern for businesses and non-profit organizations”
In mid-March, the chamber, along with the Downtown Vernon Association and the City of Vernon, hosted security and crime prevention workshops for businesses.
The City of Vernon introduced the Activate Safety Task Force in 2018. From it, a summertime security program was born that had marked cars monitoring streets overnight. It was unable to enforce the law and only provided a presence, during its three operating years, the program received 32 calls.
In November 2022, the city chose not to bring the program back. Staff cited private security presence and not enough calls to warrant the $40,000 cost per year.
The cause of Tuesday’s fire is still unknown, but police are currently treating the fire as suspicious.
