A kitchen fire has broken out at a popular Jewish deli in North Bondi that police are treating as suspicious after detectives were seen removing a jerrycan from the scene.
Emergency services were called to Curlewis Street, North Bondi, following reports of a fire at Lewis’ Continental Deli after 4am on Sunday morning.
Eastern Suburbs officers attended the scene and found the business, located on the ground floor of the building, well alight.
It took firefighters an hours to bring the fire under control.
More than 20 residents who live in units above the deli had to be evacuated from the building. No injuries were reported.
NSW Police Inspector Ellen Jackson told reporters that initial investigations have revealed ‘nothing to suggest that this is a targeted incident’.
She assured there ‘are no signs to suggest any threat to the community’.
‘We are following all lines of inquiry,’ she said.
Police established a crime scene and commenced investigations into the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The business remained taped off on Sunday afternoon as police examined the scene.
Footage from the scene shows a plain clothed detectives wearing face masks removing a jerrycan from the deli that serve kosher dishes.
Uniformed officers were removing brown paper bags of evidence.
The suspicious blaze comes several months after a fire broke out in the unit above the Lewis’ Continental deli after an e-bike’s battery spontaneously erupted into flames while four tenants were sleeping.
Anyone with information has been urged to call Crime Stoppers.